Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called last year for the “conquest” of Europe by Islam “through emigration” into Europe and announced that the “conquest is to have the courage, tenacity, and sagacity to defy the entire world even at the hardest times.”

The speech, delivered in Istanbul on May 30, 2015, at a public meeting celebrating the 562nd anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire’s Muslim armies, has just been translated into English for the first time.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his hijab-wearing wife, photographed at the 562nd anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim armies.

The translation, made by a Turkish journalist now living in Washington DC, was published by the Gatestone Institute, a Jewish neocon “think thank” based in New York, which specializes in anti-Muslim propaganda in support of Israel.

This fact aside, the translation of Erdogan’s speech is of great importance to anyone wishing to understand Turkey’s intentions in Europe—and of the critical dangers which admitting that nation holds for the future of European civilization.

In the speech last year, attended by two million people who cheered him on, Erdogan asked “What is the conquest?”

“The conquest is Hijrah [expansion of Islam through emigration, following the example of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, and his followers from Mecca to Medina]. The conquest is Mecca. It is to cleanse the Kaaba, the house of Allah on earth, of all the icons. The conquest is Jerusalem. It is when the prophet Omar stamped the seal of Islam on Al-Aqsa Mosque, our first Qibla [the direction to face when a Muslim prays during the five times daily prayers] while respecting all faiths including [those of] Christians and Jews.

“The conquest is Al-Andalus [Muslim Spain]. It is to build the most beautiful architecture, literature, and culture of the world such as in Córdoba and Granada.

“The conquest is Samarkand [a city in present-day Uzbekistan and once a capital of the ancient Sogdian civilization whose main religion was Zoroastrianism].

“The conquest is Bukhara [also in present-day Uzbekistan. It was a diverse city with Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Jewish, and Nestorian Christian communities]. It is to establish one of the greatest civilizations of history in the steppes of Central Asia.

“The conquest is Salah al-Din al-Ayubbi [Saladin, who in 1187 invaded Jerusalem]. It is to hoist the flag of Islam in Jerusalem again.

“The conquest is Alp Arslan [the second Sultan of the medieval Muslim Seljuk Empire, who conquered Anatolia].

“The conquest is to open the doors of Anatolia up to Vienna for this blessed nation. The conquest is Osman Ghazi [the first Ottoman Sultan]. It is to make the sycamore [the Ottoman Empire] meet with the ground that would cover three continents and seven climates through the enlightenment inspired by Sheikh Edebali who said, ‘Make the human live so that the state can live.’

“The conquest is preparation. The conquest is when the Sultan Murad II abdicated the throne to his 12-year-old son, Mehmed II. And of course, the conquest is the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. It is, at age 21, to embrace Istanbul, the most favorite city of the world, after destroying the millennial Byzantium.

“Mehmed the Conqueror conquered Istanbul in 1453. But the conquests always continued before and after that. They continued with Sultan Selim I the Grim, Sultan Suleiman the Lawgiver, Sultan Murad IV, and Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

“The conquest is to have the courage, tenacity, and sagacity to defy the entire world even at the hardest times.

“The conquest is 1994 [when Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul]. It is to serve Istanbul and the legacy of the Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. The conquest is to make Turkey stand up on its feet again.”

The crowd shouted, “Here is the army; here is the commander.”

Erdogan could not have made his position any clearer: he seeks the reestablishment of the Ottoman Empire and the expansion of Islam back to the borders reached by the Muslim invasion of Europe.

This includes all of Spain and Portugal, and the Balkan states, reaching all the way back to Vienna—where the Ottomans were only halted in the great battle of 1683.

Erdogan’s unguarded remarks—made at an event celebrating a major European defeat at the hands of Islam—reveal his—and Turkey’s—true intentions with regard to Europe.

There cannot be any doubt that Turkish admission to the EU will open the borders to Europe to the millions of Turks who still fanatically believe in the reconquest of the former lands of the Ottoman Empire—and the Islamification of Europe.