Turkey sent the ratification bill for the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, the mutual-defence pact Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed on 7 August, to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, in Turkish the Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (TBMM), on or about 20 October. The daily Gazete Oksijen published its 16 articles1.
Article 2 says "an external armed attack on any Party is treated as an attack on all Parties", with help "including military means and capabilities", which echoes Article 5 of the treaty of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Article 7 commits the parties to joint defence production and research. Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) says no party may leave for the first 10 years. No article sets up a joint military command, though Article 6 encourages deployments and Article 8 creates a committee of foreign and defence ministers and chiefs of staff to direct the joint defence. The text names no enemy.
Article 16 brings the pact into force only when the last instrument of ratification is deposited (lodged with the pact's secretariat). Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan invoked it in Riyadh on 5 October, before Turkey had ratified. Under Article 90 of Turkey's constitution a treaty binds Ankara only after parliament approves it by law, so the collective-defence clause the three ministers activated could not yet bind Turkey. Turkish officials can argue that the 5 October invocation was a political commitment that ratification makes formal.
