The power of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears limitless. It seems the Turkish president will rule forever.

The events since last April’s referendum supposedly confirm this gloomy outlook. The vote delivered Erdoğan and his party, the AKP, a crucial victory, ushering in constitutional changes that established an overtly dictatorial system. Purges and repression followed.

Yet a closer look reveals that Erdoğan’s would-be dictatorship is anything but stable. All the social contradictions that have simmered under the surface, frustrating the AKP’s attempts to consolidate its political dominance, were manifest again during the referendum. And they haven’t vanished in the months since.