Ankara is at an impasse as a result of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and opposition parties’ firm, unbridgeable politics of social division. The government presents itself as being certain that it is totally right on all things considered, and that the opposition is totally wrong.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan even accuses the opposition of engaging with “terrorist organizations.” The Nationalist Action Party “MHP acted together with the terrorist organizations in the 2010 [local election] and got hugely defeated,” the prime minister said on June 3 at his party’s regular parliamentary group meeting.

Referring to Gezi Park at Istanbul’s Taksim Square, which was at the center of mass demonstrations in 2013, and the graft probe that hit the surface about six months ago bringing his government under the judicial spotlight, Erdogan asserted once again that the US-based Sunni cleric Fethullah Gulen had played a direct role as a pawn of foreign powers in all these events and that the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is being used.

“Starting with the CHP, the business world, employees and organizations, those who invested their hope in chaos played a crucial role in the [Gezi Park protests]. But people have seen the motive behind these protests.” He said, “On March 30 (the day of local elections), people gave a big lesson to the treasonous front of Pennsylvania [where Gulen is based] and the CHP.”