On New Year’s Day, Turkey was stunned when a lone gunman killed 39 people at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul. The incident was one of several violent attacks on Turkish soil over the past year, the latest being a bomb blast which killed two people near an Istanbul courthouse. The attacks threaten to further destabilize Turkey and the ruling government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his AKP political party.

BFM explores the circumstances that led to the current political and social atmosphere surrounding the shooting, if these attacks have affected Turkey’s secularism, and how Erdogan may respond to future terrorist threats.

This is a report by Jason Lim.

Click here for Part II of the story.