Overview
- Organizers said about 10,000 people joined the People’s March and police gave an official figure of roughly 7,000, a turnout reporters described as one of the biggest regime‑critical demonstrations in Turkey since Gezi.
- Saturday’s march brought together Turkish opposition groups, local environmental campaigns from Akbelen, Kazdağları and Soma, and Global South delegations including activists from Samoa and Uganda.
- Protesters demanded concrete climate justice measures such as debt‑free finance for the Global South, reparations for climate damage, food sovereignty and protections for indigenous rights.
- Authorities publicly allowed the demonstration and there were no mass arrests, but the route was fenced, participants faced repeated bag and banner checks and cameras filmed individuals after an earlier temporary detention of a civil‑society staffer.
- Organizers warned the protest’s impact may be limited once international attention leaves, and the march underlines both growing global solidarity at COP31 and continued constraints on public protest inside Turkey.