We are experiencing a summer that offers a partial relief after the anxious and restricted days of the pandemic curfews. Of course, the relief is relative: the flames of Turkey’s political agenda never seem to fade. Additionally, this summer is proving to be a time when complaints about the economy intensify.

Our research into the headline social issues generally places lower standards of living, making ends meet, and unemployment at the top of the list. On top of that, what we do not know about the Coronavirus far exceeds what we know. As a result, there is a chance that in autumn we may have to face up to the pandemic’s impact on our lives again. The hesitancy that surrounds the reopening of schools shows that the Coronavirus threat is still a very serious national issue.

While the anxiety remains, the virus seems on pause and the restrictions largely lifted. How is Turkey making use of this time?

The agenda that polarizes politics and society is continuing as if the Coronavirus crisis did not exist. Voters continue to be divided along party lines. If we look at the full half of the glass, violence against women remains as a red line for society and there are other issues of such sensitivity that voters will not surrender to polarization.

It is pleasing to see that there are areas where we have not given up on social values and that we oppose violence against women, even as we look with deep doubt and mistrust on many other areas from the media to games of chance.

The July Turkey's Pulse survey was carried out using the stratified sampling and weighting method on 1,350 people in 28 provinces based on the 26 regions of Turkey's NUTS 2 system between July 18 - 23. The survey used CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing) methodology with a margin error of 2.67 percent at the 95 percent level of confidence.