"We do not see Syria as a foreign problem; Syria is our domestic problem because we have an 850-kilometer border with this country, we have historical and cultural ties, we have kinship," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in August 2011, days before his foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, paid his last visit to the Syrian capital to meet [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad. Upon Davutoglu’s return, Erdogan decided there was no chance left to work for a solution with Assad, and announced that toppling the Syrian regime had become state policy.

The Erdogan government today, however, claims that the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is playing a dirty game and exploiting the Syrian crisis domestically by pushing a sectarian-oriented policy in Turkey. Erdogan even went so far as to accuse CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu of being responsible for the May 11 terrorist attack that left 52 dead in Reyhanli, a town on the Syrian border. For his part, Kilicdaroglu also holds Erdogan responsible for the deaths in Reyhanli. There is, however, a significant difference between these two accusations, although both are equally distasteful.

The first question to be asked is this: Has Erdogan crossed a red line with his accusations of Kilicdaroglu? “The person who guided the CHP delegation to Damascus twice is the exact person who planned the Reyhanli blasts as well as the bomb attacks, killings and hijackings at the border camps,” Erdogan said on Tuesday, May 28, at his party’s weekly parliamentary group meeting. “A journalist working at a daily paper close to the CHP, who is now under custody, had been in close contact with this individual and had leaked him documents and information. A close relative of one of the CHP deputies is involved in these dark scenarios.” Erdogan went on to claim, “The CHP chairman’s numerous disgraceful and shameless attacks are aimed at covering up what happened at Reyhanli. Kilicdaroglu should immediately present his resignation.”

Turkish media and many analysts interpreted these remarks as Erdogan holding Kilicdaroglu directly responsible for the Reyhanli blasts. The Turkish prime minister also said that the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MIT) had been monitoring this suspect for some time, which leads to the question whether the MIT had the responsibility to warn the CHP that the person it was working with was implicated in preparations to carry out attack(s) in Turkey. These are strong charges, and they beg close scrutiny. Yet, the media as well as ordinary people on the street can only be confused about what’s really going on at the border area, and whether the CHP has done anything wrong of  that magnitude. Many analysts and columnists in the media are not convinced that the CHP could have taken part in such a heinous crime on Turkish land.