Reported by Al Jazeera
Parliament’s approval lays the groundwork for further Turkish involvement in Saudi Arabia’s conflict with the Houthis.
Turkiye’s parliament has ratified a defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that includes a collective defence clause, committing NATO’s second-largest military to the group’s aid in case of attack.
The ratification on Thursday comes as Riyadh continues to face attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis.
More from the original report
Turkiye first signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in August and sent it to parliament for ratification last month.
Article 1 of a bill approving the pact was adopted by the Turkish parliament on Wednesday.
But afterwards, Deputy Parliament Speaker Celal Adan adjourned the session until Thursday afternoon, the Anadolu news agency reported.
After parliament returned to session, lawmakers continued to debate the other articles in the pact.
The agreement ultimately passed with 279 votes in favour and 119 against, with 398 of the chamber’s 592 lawmakers taking part in the vote.
The pact contains 16 articles, according to a document submitted to the Turkish parliament, seen by the Reuters news agency.
In Article 1 of the accord, the signatories shall use “all necessary means” to eliminate threats to one another’s territorial integrity. Article 1 can be invoked in case of an attack on any member state.
Once the first article is invoked, the document lays out provisions for what follows.
“In the event one of the parties is subjected to an armed attack or military aggression by another country or group of countries, the parties shall immediately provide assistance to the party under attack, utilising the full range of mutual assistance measures available to them,” says Article 2 of the pact.
This key clause mirrors Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, the document that established the NATO military alliance. NATO’s Article 5 establishes that an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all.
Given that Turkiye is a member of both NATO and the Mecca pact, critics have raised questions about whether the country’s government might face a conflict of interest in allocating its military resources.
Turkish officials, however, have dismissed such concerns as…