Turkish society has always been prone to polarization. This did not stem naturally from Turks' way of living obviously. One can even argue that a multiethnic and multicultural society had been functioning rather well under the Ottoman Empire, for centuries, offering much better living conditions and social status than most other contemporary regimes. With the advent of nationalism, especially in the second half of the 19th century, despite modernization efforts undertaken by the ruling elites (1839 and 1856 Reform Edicts), the atomization of communities and subsequent conflicts mainly shaped late Ottoman society. The demise of the empire has been a long, very bloody and extremely traumatic process.Large parts of a diverse and mutually interpenetrating society turned into rival factions and movements.Starting from the Balkans, the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire has been a tragic and sorrowful story of ethnic cleansing.Modern Turkey was created on the ashes of a civil war. The Armenian population was destroyed through deportations, Greek populations were deported through population exchanges, almost the totality of the Muslim population in the Balkans have been exiled.All over the empire, the motto of the ruling elites was always to secure "the survival of the Sublime State (the Ottoman Empire)."They have been unable to salvage the Ottoman rule over the traditional territories and provinces of the empire and the disappearance of a multi-centennial administration and regime has profoundly traumatized the establishment of the late empire. Modern Turkey will thus be constructed to the glory of an "eternally sound state" ("ilelebed payidar" as stated by Kemal Atatürk), very much in the same vein as the Ottoman State, depicted officially as "Devlet-i Ebed Müddet" (The state that will last eternally).To the contrary of the empire, the new republic was extremely weak, with a decimated population after 12 years of war, with severed trading routes, with Anatolian cities deprived of their artisans and know-how because of Armenian deportations, with a very hostile Kurdish population thinking that they have been betrayed with the republic, on top of it foreign debt contracted under the Ottoman Empire to be reimbursed by the new state, in exchange for international recognition.Atatürk's legacy should also been studied from the viewpoint of "how a terrible fate can be turned into a glorious independence war won and a new page opened." Mustafa Kemal, by allowing a totally fabricated historiography of Turks descending from Sumerians, has helped an entire society to forget about the terrible events of the war, deportations, mass killings, appropriations, eradications and contemplate the future with pride and self-confidence. His action and leadership has been acting as a sedative over a deeply injured, insulted and traumatized society.The method has been so successful that even today, for the average Turk, it is difficult to question the official historiography of the republic.The first decades of the republic have been impregnated with an inward-looking development strategy, coupled with a continuous effort to establish regional cooperation and non-aggression alliances. The Sadabad and Balkan Pacts have been the result of this approach to foreign policy. Together with the Cold War, the Turkish Republic will find itself in an international environment that is very suitable to consolidating domestic affairs by further glorifying the "state."Evidently, a regime cannot be indefinitely consolidated to the detriment of public liberties and independent institutions within the state, unless it is under a very tangible threat of "alien forces."The entire history of the republic is made up of a so-called threat of foreign states or movements against whom the regime should be safeguarded. It goes without saying that one cannot have "external foes" without having "their domestic collaborators." Turkish democracy, each time it had some room to develop and expand, has been jugulated and severed mainly by the armed forces and the establishment by invoking "internal turmoil that could totally destroy the foundations of our Republic."This continuous reference to external threats and their internal collaborators has created an atmosphere very propitious to polarization and conflicting stances. Not only in politics, but almost in every dimension of the public life, the violence of the discussions and argumentations can be explained through this tradition of seeing "enemies" everywhere. In the year 2000, Turkey had to play a final match against the republic of Ireland, to qualify for the European Football cup. The first away game was heavily criticized by domestic sport commentators, arguing that the football played by the national squad did not augur well for the home game.Turkey ultimately won the game with a large score, after which the manager of the national team declared that they had won the game not only against the Irish, but also against the "Irish within us."This immediate and violent exacerbation of any disagreement is costing Turkey its social peace, to say the least. The recent elections have given a final result. Even by taking into consideration the lowest percentages obtained by the ruling AK Party, a comfortable 43 percent has been obtained, whereas the main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, has stalled at below 26 percent.But the electoral defeat is being almost viscerally rejected by party officials and supporting media, who continuously provoke public opinion.The society is deeply divided and under heavy pressure. This does not concern political divergences only, after a derby game between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe two leading teams of Istanbul, the most famous in Turkey, grave incidents have taken place not only around the football ground, as usual, but all over Turkey. The game counted for almost nothing, Fenerbahçe has a very comfortable lead of 10 points seven weeks before the end of championship. On its side, Galatasaray won the game by a narrow score, but that was a victory. However, the game was one of the dirtiest in Turkish football history, with 16 bookings and two expulsions. The tension is undermining everyone's perception of the events and hardens their way of reacting.It is primarily the government who should pave the way toward a low tension atmosphere in politics, the whole opposition and the mass media to follow. This is not political struggle anymore, this is turning into a vendetta and no one can claim victory out of such a violent conflict.