ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes ways in which Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) representatives used Twitter against the 'occupygezi' movement, which discursive strategies they applied, and how they perceived social media in their discursive practices. It discusses the way in which AKP scapegoated and marginalized the protesters and their collective identities. The chapter argues that since the very first year it took power, AKP has been gradually establishing 'a new hegemony' based on its 'conservative democracy' ideology. Politics is a hegemonic struggle conducted within the language and through the language. AKP and PM Erdogan use the 3 states of Turkish right politics in a successful way, combining them under the conceptualization of 'conservative democracy' and operating these states of Turkish right politics while manufacturing hegemony in the public sphere. Conservatism attaches importance to the existing social culture, traditions, history, religious values, and beliefs and aims to establish democratic political and public space within the bounds of what is considered to be appropriate.
