Türkiye's parliament approves the “Mecca Agreement” for joint defense

The Turkish Parliament approved the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement” signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan after discussions that continued over two days until early Friday morning.

The agreement received the votes of 279 representatives, while 119 rejected it during the vote that took place on the agreement as a single package, and then its articles were voted on article by article.

Party representatives spoke during the plenary session before the vote. The representative of the ruling Justice and Development Party, Ziya Altun Yildiz, said that the “Mecca Agreement” is not directed against any country, and that its goal is not to escalate conflicts in the region, but rather to prevent their outbreak and achieve stability and well-being for its people.

The representative of the National Movement Party, an ally of the ruling party in the People’s Alliance, Kamal Aydin, said that various countries in the region have signed some agreements, and that the “Mecca Agreement” is an important agreement that will enhance trust, cooperation and solidarity among its parties and ensure the absence of external interference in solving the problems of our region.

He added that the agreement stems from strengthening strategic cooperation and a culture of joint action based on mutual trust between the countries of the region, based on regional responsibility, in addition to establishing a security approach based on collective deterrence, and working to find solutions to the region’s problems from within.

Aydin stressed that the “purely defensive-oriented” agreement does not target any country, but rather seeks to contribute to regional peace, stability and security, and does not cancel any bilateral or multilateral obligations of Turkey arising from alliances or other agreements.

The head of the parliamentary group of the Republican People's Party, Faiq Oztrak, pointed out that the regional balance of power is changing, and that the convergence of influential forces at the global and regional levels has become an inevitable necessity, stressing the necessity of Türkiye taking action and taking the necessary steps in this regard.

He added that the “Mecca Agreement” provides Turkey a new field for cooperation, saying: “As the Republican People’s Party, we are not about to reaffirm that security guarantees provided from outside our region cannot solve its problems. We have adopted the principle of deterrence through regional cooperation, and this has been our position from the beginning, and our demand to establish (the Organization for Peace and Cooperation in the Middle East) since the 2018 elections stems from this basis.”

The procedures for ratifying the agreement will be completed by referring it to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for approval and publishing it in the Official Gazette.

The “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement,” signed last August 7 by Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, stipulates that any attack on any of the three countries is considered an attack on all of them.

The agreement aims to enhance joint deterrence in the face of threats, and develop various aspects of defense cooperation, in a way that contributes to supporting the security of the three countries and the stability of the region, as well as cooperation in enhancing defense capabilities and raising the level of coordination and integration between the armed forces of the three countries, through joint military training and activities.

It also includes developing cooperation in defense industries and military technologies, and expanding areas of joint production, in a way that supports the defense capabilities of the three countries and enhances their readiness to confront security challenges.

During the meeting of the strategic policies committee emanating from the agreement, which was held in Istanbul on August 31, the three countries agreed to establish a general secretariat in Riyadh to support joint work, coordinate efforts within the framework of the agreement, and institutionalize it. It was agreed that the Secretariat in its first phase would be headed by a Secretary-General from Pakistan for a period of 3 years, providing an institutional framework to follow up on the implementation of the agreement and enhance coordination between its three parties.