Thousands protest at alternative ‘people’s Cop’ march in Turkey

Resumen detallado

Demonstrators express frustration at slow pace of climate action and question motives of those attending Cop31 summit ...

Thousands of people have demonstrated in Antalya, Turkey, where the Cop31 climate summit is being held.

The “people’s Cop” march, traditionally held at the halfway point in the two weeks of negotiations, brought environmental, political, human rights and workers organisations on to the downtown streets of the city 20km from the summit venue.

In a heavily policed event, participants and observers were searched thoroughly before entering a corralled zone.

Authorities had closed off streets and along a barricaded 1.5km route to channel the marchers to a square where several hours of speeches and music followed.

International and local groups took part, many expressing frustration at the slow pace of climate action and questioning the motives of those attending Cop31.

“They are discussing their own interests,” said Ayse Ozdemir, a veteran activist from the Peoples Democratic Party which has effectively been shut down by the government via protracted court action.

“I know some prime ministers have come to Turkey but they are talking about the situation in the Middle East and they are thinking about how much land they can take, how much guns they can sell each other,” she said.

“That’s what they are discussing in the back rooms so we don’t think it helps our climate; it will help the capitalists.”

She said she was protesting for the younger generation. “We do it for our grandchildren. We are ones who made dirty the earth. We must fix it for them.”

Inicio del artículo, extracto de The Irish Times. Para leer el resto, abra el artículo en el sitio del medio.