Turkish parliament ratifies Mecca defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

Ratification in Ankara

The Turkish parliament has ratified the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, the pact Turkey signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in August. Lawmakers adopted the first article on Wednesday, 4 November, then adjourned, and the full bill passed once the session resumed on Thursday, 5 November. The final tally was 279 votes in favour and 119 against, with 398 of the 592 members taking part.

In favour279

Against119

In favour

279 votes

Against

119 votes

Data from the article text

The governing AKP and the nationalist MHP backed the bill. The CHP also voted in favour, according to Deutsche Welle, while most opposition parties did not support the text. The Yeni Parti, the DEM and the İYİ party voted against.

What the pact commits members to

The agreement was signed in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Its core clause treats an armed attack on any one of the three countries as an attack on all of them. The parties must then give the attacked state assistance, using the full range of mutual aid available to them. Other articles cover intelligence sharing, joint deterrence and deeper cooperation in defence industries. The clause mirrors Article 5 of the NATO treaty. Because Turkey belongs to both alliances, critics have asked whether it could face a conflict of interest, a concern Turkish officials have dismissed.

Yemen and the question of troops

Turkish officials describe the alliance as purely defensive and have said no Turkish troops would be sent to fight in Yemen or to attack the Houthis. Ankara has said it is considering military assistance to Saudi Arabia, but any deployment abroad would need a separate vote in parliament. Riyadh is in an active conflict with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen and continues to face their attacks. Fuat Oktay, chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, said Turkey would not be pulled into an uncontrolled process against its will. Regional states remain anxious about a new escalation in the U.S.-Iran war, which could spill over into neighboring countries. During earlier rounds of fighting, Iran lashed out at U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states, Saudi Arabia included.

Opposition objections and the timeline

Opposition lawmakers argued that the pact could embroil Turkey in regional wars and put soldiers in harm's way. Murat Emir, deputy leader of the opposition New Party's lawmakers, said:

“They brought this agreement to send Turkish soldiers to the deserts of Yemen,”

Süreyya Öneş Derici, a New Party MP for Muğla, noted that Saudi Arabia is already in active fighting in Yemen. In remarks reported by Deutsche Welle, Selçuk Türkoğlu of the İYİ Party, the MP for Bursa, criticised the gap between signing and ratification. He listed a committee meeting in Istanbul on 31 August and a second meeting in Riyadh on 5 October, and asked under what authority the alliance's structures had begun working before parliament decided.

Path to force

The bill was submitted to parliament on 20 October, and the foreign affairs committee approved it at the end of October. Earlier in October, the signatories had already announced the pact as valid, although it was not yet in force because Turkey had not ratified it. The agreement takes effect once each party submits its domestic approval documents to the relevant committee. Sending forces abroad will require a further vote in the Turkish parliament.