The hurt of losing these martyrs and the identity of the killers were suddenly relegated to the background. Even opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu cited not the PKK but Erdoğan by name while condemning the attack.
While the AKP is still largely under Erdoğan’s influence, it also has a complex, differentiated, multi-layered, multi-variable social and economic background.
At the end of the day, if today we are heading for new elections, it is the MHP that bears the strategic and the CHP that bears the tactical blame for this outcome.
It is a problem for Erdoğan's opponents that his prestige has strengthened further in the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and in the eyes of the public, if one fails to approach him fairly.
In the end, the government did come up with a very successful move: All the bargaining that had been going on with the US for months was concluded with an agreement that enabled Turkey to draw US support to its side, with the further corollary that Turkey came to be certified as a primary partner in the struggle against IS. (…) Cooperation with the US also means cooperation with the Turkish army, and renders the AKP’s survival significant and functional directly in the eyes of these two actors.