Report: Turkey Seeks Parliamentary Mandate for Sending Troops to Defend Saudi Arabia

Turkey’s ruling AKP party is reportedly seeking a mandate from Parliament to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia to protect it from attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen, thus fulfilling the mutual defense obligations of the treaty signed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan in August.

An unnamed AKP lawmaker told Reuters on Wednesday that Turkey’s proposed deployment to Saudi Arabia would be purely defensive in nature, with its forces forbidden to participate in any offensive actions against the Houthis. The first wave of Turkish troops would include experts in missile and drone defense.

Two other Turkish officials previously said Turkey would only provide military equipment and intelligence to the Saudis, so even a purely defensive troop deployment would represent a major upgrade of Turkey’s defensive commitment to Saudi Arabia.

The trilateral defense pact signed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan in early August is known as the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, after the Saudi city where it was ratified — a city sacred to Islam that has since come under attack by Houthi drones, drawing considerable outrage from much of the Muslim world.

The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement includes a provision similar to NATO Article V which requires all members to regard an attack on any of the others as an attack upon itself. This commitment has become rather awkward during the Houthis’ increasingly destructive and deadly attacks on Saudi civilian targets.

“The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all. It further provides for the enhancement of all aspects of defense cooperation among the three States,” the Mecca signatories jointly declared in August.

Turkey has condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi civilian targets but has been reluctant to take action, as its trilateral pact with the Saudis and Pakistanis would seem to require.

The three signatories held an emergency meeting in Riyadh on October 5 to discuss their joint response to Houthi aggression, at which Pakistan and Turkey agreed to “take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom.”

Almost three weeks and several Houthi strikes on Saudi airports later, no Turkish or Pakistani boots are known to have touched Saudi ground, although Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif insisted at the October 5 meeting that “the forces of Turkey and Pakistan are playing a supporting role” in areas such as “reconnaissance.”

On Tuesday, the Turkish government pointed out that the Mecca agreement was never ratified by its parliament, and began the process of doing so. The bill to authorize deployment to Saudi Arabia will reportedly be considered after Turkish parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmus returns from a trip to Kyrgyzstan where he has been attending a regional meeting known as the General Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TURKPA).

Turkey’s Daily Sabah reported that if the bill is approved, Turkey will “provide low- and medium-altitude aerial defense systems to Saudi Arabia along with assistance in drone technologies and electronic warfare,” and the Saudis will furnish Turkey’s forces with a base for their operations.

The Daily Sabah added that Saudi officials conveyed “some expectations” to the Turkish Foreign Ministry that are currently being “examined.”