The year 2021 has been one of the most fragile that encompasses human history. The extraordinary turn of events generated by Covid-19 showed the world how weak and defenseless humanity really is, despite its uncontrollable arrogance. 

The world’s greatest countries were left helpless. Even the wealthiest countries panicked. Even the most powerful states surrendered. The welfare system established by Western countries used to exploit the world was shaken to its core.  

The Western world now fears the future. This pandemic revealed that the “poor and weak” communities of the East and South have greater resistance than Western communities. 

The powerful realized the limits of their power. The weak witnessed once more the injustices of the world. 

We saw how countries at the peak of power and wealth abandoned their own people to despair. We witnessed horrendous acts of ruthlessness and selfishness.

People were abandoned to their deaths in nursing homes, abandoned to their deaths due to heavy health costs. The system they boasted of collapsed in the face of a single pandemic. 

Social harmony withered away while the rage of the masses flared. Faith in the state weakened. Confidence in established institutions waned. From Italy to the U.K., from Germany to the U.S., the spell of the Western world was broken. 

A virus originating from the East humiliated the West to an unprecedented degree in modern history. Surely its repercussions would not impact the field of health alone. It would reflect on the domains of power, welfare, and wealth, too. 

The great power shift we have been following daily for two decades further gained momentum, and spread through different fields. Concepts and beliefs such as Western power, Western supremacy, Western wealth, the seduction of the West, and the Western world order were crumbling. 

Europe withdrew. The U.S. withdrew. They withdrew to attempt to take control of the situation, as well as hide their failures, flaws, and shame. As a matter of fact, the whole West was withdrawing and weakening their global claims. 

The great change, the mental transformation, the distribution of power that has been visible in the last three decades reached an extraordinary rate in 2021. It can be said that decades of change unfolded in 2021 alone. 

The world now had new centers. There were new emerging countries. New regions had gained strength. The centuries-old order that centralized the West was shattered. A mental revolution took place, and nobody was deifying the West anymore. 

The pandemic’s geopolitical effects were shocking. Many countries lost their great claims. States trying to re-calibrate the world discovered that their own settings were out of tune. They realized their own weaknesses, their limits. 

Economic chaos had begun. Even global economic centers such as the U.S. and Europe started to struggle with inflation and food crises. Producing countries emerged, while consumer countries were struck by chaos. 

The China-Europe supply corridor collapsed. Prices fluctuated in Europe. Inter-state economic dependency came to the fore as a new “national threat.” A new sort of power struggle started between weakening countries and emerging ones. The cost and nature of the showdown changed. 

Turkey emerged from this kerfuffle with the least damage possible. It surpassed even the U.S. and Europe in preparation for the pandemic, and in terms of the order and efficiency in its health system. Turkey’s power surge in recent years jumped another level. 

A new “Turkey effect” that broke new ground in the military/security field, whose political effects spread through continents, from Africa to the depths of Asia, came to the fore as a new global factor. 

The fact that Turkey managed to keep under control the effects of the pandemic, and rapidly filled the new power void, made Turkey a rising star. 

 Its political mind, systemic transformation, infrastructure preparations for the great future rendered Turkey a central country between the East and West. 

As Turkey’s impact and influence vastly expanded, from Africa to Asia, it became a source for Europe in terms of production and supply. 

Hence, the colonial forces of the past were striving to “keep Turkey in a controlled domain” again. They were doing this by mobilizing the Turkish opposition, and gathering political groups under a single roof. 

But they were doomed to fail. Because, the world’s transformation, the power shifts, the permanency of “Turkey’s effect” would not allow it. Because they were losing strength. They were losing the influence to change regimes, change governments, and format countries. 

Turkey is going to gain extraordinary momentum in its rise post-pandemic. While the influence of superpowers continues to weaken, countries like Turkey will increase their field of action. 

Covid-19 was a pandemic. But it was not a health issue alone. It would lead to geopolitical outcomes, accelerate power shifts and change the global power map.

We are going to bear witness to the real outcomes of the pandemic in 2022. Even though the political conflicts within will intensify, though foreign pressures will rise, Turkey will spawn even more striking geopolitical shocks in 2022. 

We will see it elevated to an even more imperative position in areas such as energy, food, technology, defense, and the East-West supply line. 

The global bottleneck and withdrawal generated by the pandemic will become even more obvious in 2022 – for the West in particular. The U.S. is going to mobilize its power against China, while Europe will do the same against Russia. 

This void will be filled vastly by Turkey. Europe will continue its vigilance against Turkey. Thus, this will reflect within as a political showdown. 

The year 2022 will be a vertiginous one in which humanity will push the limits of power, the mind, and speed. There will be dizzying developments in mental transformations, political changes, lifestyles, political perceptions, and the redefinition of power domains. 

We are on the verge of humanity’s great transformation, the return of assertive nations. We will see this more clearly in 2022. 

Let us hold Turkey in high esteem. We are experiencing one of the most critical periods in our millennium in Anatolia. 

This is an opportunity for the miracle of centuries. Let us refrain from pushing away this opportunity. Let us welcome 2022 together, as one.