For the last couple of years, it has become almost impossible, even for avid Justice and Development Party (AKP) supporters, to talk about Turkey without exclusively focusing on the almighty Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan rules without any challenge. From high school entrance exams to laser hair removal, all issues are decided exclusively at the palace. Whether one uses the label “one-man rule” as praise or criticism, there are no checks left on Erdogan, whose words promptly become the law of the land.

For a long time, Erdogan critics were hopeful that senior AKP members may be able to check the president, but as Erdogan’s powers expanded, the number of influential founding members of the AKP still active in policy decreased. One way or another they were all removed, and none proved himself to be a force to be reckoned with. There is only one exception — Abdullatif Sener, a founding member of the AKP and deputy prime minister for five years, who left the party in 2007 on his own will.

Former Erdogan allies who have been dismissed are called Erdogan’s X-Men, a term coined by cheeky Ankara bureaucrats who are more in tune with Hollywood than their own culture. We should note that just like in X-Men movies, the term is gender neutral. So what happened to the dozens of Erdogan’s X-Men who helped him establish his one-man rule?

There are at least three categories where former AKP heavyweights wind up. First is the group of founding AKP members who have held crucial political posts, such as former President Abdullah Gul, former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and former Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc. Just before the end of their terms, these men suffered social media attacks from core-Erdogan supporters and all other critics who had to suffer these political figures’ meek decisions over the years. These founding AKP members were forced to hand over their posts. Even if none of the allegations stuck, their political reputations were destroyed. Erdogan rarely ever speaks ill of his former colleagues. As one savvy Ankara bureaucrat told Al-Monitor, “Why would he get blood on his hands when there are all those others who are eager to gorge on anger and jealousy? In-group fighting has reached a climax in Ankara, and whatever leaks out of this cauldron to the media angers Erdogan and his media team the most.”