This paper interrogates the complex spatial and political conceptualizations of environmental justice articulated by the supporters of the ‘Bergama resistance’ in Turkey. Originating a few years after the official application of Turkey for full membership of the European Union, the Bergama resistance against the Australian-owned Eurgold Corporation was one of the largest and most successful environmental social movements in Turkey. Mobilized by a group of internationally-connected policy entrepreneurs and peopled mostly by a group of dedicated and relatively prosperous peasant activists, the movement opposed the establishment and operation of a gold mine based on the cyanide-leaching method of extraction. The Bergama resistance utilized two main strategies to further its goals: political demonstrations that created nationally-appealing public spectacles and judicial interventions at various local, national and international courts that consolidated incremental gains secured against Eurogold. Both strategies relied heavily on a conceptualization of environmental justice that aimed to fill a perceived void left by the Turkish state that had been dismantling itself through neoliberal economic reforms. The first section provides a brief overview of the Bergama movement, paying particular attention to several key demonstrations (e.g. the protest on the Bosphorus bridge connecting Europe and Asia) and important legal decisions (e.g. European Court of Human Rights ruling on the case). The second section demonstrates that the movement utilized examples from different historical and geographical contexts (e.g. experience of the indigenous peoples with the conquistadors in South America and poverty in post-colonial Africa) to assert the primacy of ‘the local’ by invoking a universal notion of environmental justice. The third and final section argues that extensive recourse to legal channels was not merely borne out of a need for a convenient strategy of action. Nor were ‘justice’ and ‘rights’ fashionable tropes deployed to garner public attention. The paper demonstrates that by anchoring the concept of justice to a stylized notion of ‘European civilization’ and arguing that Turkey should play a central role in it, the activists sought to critique the ongoing neoliberalization of the state while reaffirming its final authority to direct socioeconomic development in Turkey. The paper uses ethnographic data collected during in situ field research that was conducted in 1999, 2000, 2005 and 2010.