Ninety thousand participants converge on Antalya for the COP31 climate summit, clashing directly with an escalating state crackdown on domestic environmental activists and civil society groups across Turkey.
Delegates from roughly 190 countries, including heads of government, ministers, and corporate representatives from banks, airlines, construction firms, and mining companies, fill the conference halls. Meanwhile, local grassroots organizations face severe restrictions, sweeping pre-summit arrests, and long-standing legal pressures.
Turkish Police Detain Activists Before the Summit
The night before the summit’s official opening, Turkish police raided dozens of homes in Istanbul and Izmir, detaining 23 activists and members of leftist parties and organizations, El País reported.
State pressure extends far beyond the summit perimeter into rural regions resisting industrial expansion. In the forested mountains of Mugla’s Akbelen area, 3,000 hectares of forest have been cleared and eight villages destroyed to expand open-pit lignite mines operated by Limak, a corporate sponsor of COP31 and the builder of FC Barcelona’s new sustainable stadium.
More than fifty local residents and activists face investigation or arrest for protesting these cuts. At least four individuals have received prison sentences, while local women leading the resistance report continuous harassment from security forces.
New Laws Accelerate Mining Projects and Academic Censorship
Similar conflicts unfold across western and northern Turkey over gold and mineral extraction projects involving Canadian firms like Alamos and Turkish companies like Eurogold in the Kaz mountains, Pergamon, Eskisehir, Artvin, and the Persembe plateau. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government accelerated these projects last year by passing Law 7554, dubbed the “Superpermiso,” which drastically cuts bureaucratic hurdles for both renewable energy installations and mining operations.
Academic researchers face parallel judicial hurdles for exposing environmental contamination. Engineer Bülent Sik fought a six-year court battle before the Court of Cassation acquitted him last year of a 15-month prison sentence. He had faced charges of “revealing secrets” after criticizing the Ministry of Health for withholding data from an official study revealing heavy metals and pesticides in water and food samples across five provinces, including Antalya.
Similarly, medical professor Onur Hamzaoglu defended himself in court after publishing research detailing heavy metals in breast milk and infant excrement in the industrial zone of Dilovasi. An anonymous Turkish academic confirmed to El País that these prosecutions have instilled widespread fear among researchers studying pollution and environmental degradation.
| Activist Case / Incident | Location | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aysin and Ali Ulvi Büyüknohutçu | Antalya mountains | 2017 | Assassinated following protests against illegal mining |
| Resit Kibar | Mugla / Forested region | 2024 | Shot and killed by a man linked to a timber-cutting company |
| Hakan Tosun | Turkey | 2025 | Documentalist murdered; family alleges unprosecuted instigators |
The Peoples’ Climate Summit
In the context of a theme like climate justice, the people’s voice is not truly heard,” Özlem Altiparmak of the NGO network Iklim Ag told El País.
Human Rights Watch echoed these concerns regarding frontline communities. “The impact of climate change, which is increasingly intense, is causing the displacement of entire communities; however, those who suffer these consequences are usually excluded from the decisions that determine their future,” said Maria Laura Canineu, deputy environment director at Human Rights Watch.
To counter this exclusion, civil society groups organized an independent Peoples’ Climate Summit, launching on Sunday following a mass environmental march. Emel Türker Alpay, campaigns manager for Greenpeace in Turkey, emphasized the resilience of the local movement.
“In all countries, those who raise their voices against environmental destruction face increasing pressure,” Türker Alpay told El País, noting that despite shrinking civic space, Turkish activists continue direct resistance to protect olive groves and local ecosystems.
