Bloomberg Business quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Aaron Stein on the serious tensions over political identity that divide the Turkish people along religious lines:

“Serious tensions remain between religiously-minded factions, generally supportive of the AKP, and secular cadres backing the HDP,” said Aaron Stein, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. “And once this type of tension is ratcheted up, it’s hard to put it back in the box on June 8.”

The appeals are partly a reflection of the Islamist AKP’s return to its roots and ambitions for Muslim leadership in a post-Arab Spring region. They’re also tactical – the AKP faces the biggest electoral challenge since it took power in 2002, as the HDP, rooted in the Kurdish political movement, seeks to broaden its appeal with a message of national reconciliation.

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