During the Victory Day celebration on Aug. 30, a photo showing two opposition leaders with their hands respectfully clasped in front of them as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked by became a sore sight for supporters of opposition parties because it was interpreted as those leaders bowing to Erdogan.

Yet the real reason behind the anger over such a passing moment is because the political opposition is on hiatus in Turkey. Not a day passes where the Justice and Development Party's (AKP's) policy choices do not lead to devastating consequences: imported meat sickens people; houses illegally built upon river beds threaten lives during floods; a train accident due to improper repairs and lack of staff have caused scores of preventable deaths; major construction projects are stopped midway through without any proper explanation; privatized companies declare bankruptcy, coaxing troubled banks to take on further unsecured loans with billions of dollars lost. This is just a brief list of events that took place over the last couple of months, indicating the years of failed government policies.

The loss of value in the lira followed by skyrocketing prices of consumer goods, rapidly increasing inflation rates and rising unemployment are ringing alarm bells in lower- and middle-class Turkey.

As Al-Monitor columnist Amberin Zaman reported, Erdogan’s approval ratings have plunged almost 10% from July to August 2018. When a government fails repeatedly in any democratic setup, it would present a golden opportunity for opposition parties to score points. The opposition’s job is to capitalize on the public’s human and financial suffering and increase pressures on the government. Yet it's puzzling that the Turkish opposition is on hiatus. Their rhetoric, limited mostly to social media platforms, is stale and out of sync at best. Al-Monitor asked opposition party members, activists, lawmakers and advisers about this puzzling hiatus and found four main reasons why the opposition is almost invisible in Turkey.