It has been rumored in Ankara lately that tension is growing among Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) elites, in particular between the “palace” of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the government led by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. In return, AKP spokesmen and propagandists reiterated that this false news was manufactured by opposition figures whose only aim was to create “fitna,” an Islamic term for internal strife that roughly corresponds to sedition. Yet, thanks to a series of stunning statements by Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, the fitna erupted in a way that nobody could deny.

The first such statement came on March 21, when Arinc criticized Erdogan’s outburst against the government-led “peace process” with Kurdish militants. “[Erdogan’s] statements that ‘I didn’t like it’ or ‘I don’t approve of this and that’ are his emotional remarks,” Arinc told journalists in a surprisingly defiant tone. “It’s the government that is running the country and the responsibility belongs to the government,” he said, sending to Erdogan a clear know-your-limits message.

These were not ordinary words, and Arinc is no ordinary politician. Back in 2001, he was one of the three founders of the AKP, with Erdogan and Abdullah Gul. Since Gul became president in 2007, Arinc has been regarded as the “second man” of the AKP. In the past three years, he has disputed Erdogan on various issues. During the June 2013 Gezi Park Protests, for example, Arinc opposed Erdogan’s hawkish defiance and tried to establish dialogue with the protesters. More recently, he admitted, “half of society hates us” and that the AKP itself is responsible for this. (In return, he got chided by a pro-Erdogan propagandist for “whining.”)

Arinc’s defiance of Erdogan came as a shock in a political setting where Erdogan is seen as the sole master of the AKP universe. Erdogan himself responded, saying, “I am no figurehead.” Some Erdogan devotees went further, blaming Arinc for “treachery.” But the most audacious response came from Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek, who accused Arinc of the most nefarious treason: to be a pawn of the “parallel state,” i.e., the Gulen movement. When Arinc replied to Gokcek in front of cameras on March 23, he accused Gokcek not just of “indecency” but also massive corruption. The next day, an Ankara prosecutor opened an investigation into Gokcek for corruption, in addition to an investigation into Arinc for “concealing a crime,” apparently under the assumption that he knew of the corruption but did not report it until the polemic with Gokcek broke out.