Political communication strategies of Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party) prior to the Deputy General Election on 12th june 2011

This study analyses political communication strategies of AK Party's before the General Election on 12th June 2011. For the first time in Turkish Political life, a political party in power gained an increasing trend in successfully three elections. The aim of this study is to explain whether those political communication strategies applied by the party have influence over this success. The importance of communication for politics in today's world and its relationship with political science along with the historical development of communication, mass communication tools, politic and propaganda cases are emphasized in the first section. The concept of political communication is also discussed by describing the concepts of professionalization on political communication, advertising, marketing and conviction management along with this concept. Second section includes two main subject: one is about Motherland Party (Anavatan Partisi), which deemed itself as conservative right party, along with a general information about Turkish political history and the result of 1987 Deputy General Election are given. Secondly, the establishment process of AK Party, its political and corporate identity, communication method and information related to the communication skill of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a leader are also given. In this section, AK Party's propaganda activities before 12th June 2011 Deputy Elections are observed and findings are evaluated. This section also categorically analyses declarations of elections, meeting speeches and meeting news compiled from newspapers. Followingly, sentences analysis of meeting speeches, the expressing method of the party in a political manner, sentence structures during the meeting speeches and conflictions of sentences structures are studied. In the light of those obtained data, all communication strategies throughout the AK Party's election campaigns are examined and assumptions of the examination are tested. Keywords Political Communication, Justice and Development Party, Political Marketing and Election Campaigns, AK Party's Communication Method, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.