Turkish forces prepare to deploy to Saudi Arabia

Türkiye is preparing to deploy military personnel to Saudi Arabia under the new joint defense pact it signed with the kingdom and Pakistan, and the government will send a deployment mandate to the Turkish parliament once lawmakers ratify the agreement, Reuters reported.

Ankara has already submitted the pact, known as the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, to parliament, where Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş is expected to refer it to the foreign affairs commission for debate as soon as this week.

The two-step process follows the Turkish constitution, which requires separate parliamentary approval for any deployment of troops abroad even after an international treaty has been ratified. The Turkish Defense Ministry made the same point at its weekly briefing on Oct. 15, saying that any deployment of forces or military capabilities to Saudi Arabia must go through parliament and that the size of Türkiye’s contribution would depend on Saudi requests, conditions on the ground and agreement between Ankara and Riyadh.

Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed the pact in Mecca on Aug. 7, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif agreeing that an armed attack on one member will be treated as an attack on all three. The agreement commits the members to provide immediate assistance to any partner facing aggression, in language that mirrors NATO’s Article 5, while leaving each country to decide the scope of its support, and it also covers intelligence sharing, logistics and defense industry cooperation.

The three governments agreed at an emergency meeting in Riyadh earlier this month to ensure the rapid deployment of forces and capabilities to Saudi Arabia, which has come under a widening campaign of Houthi missile and drone attacks from Yemen. The deadliest strike, on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Oct. 10, killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 300, and the Houthis have also targeted oil facilities and claimed to have shot down a Saudi F-15 in September, a claim Riyadh has not confirmed.

Türkiye already has technical teams, air defense systems and electronic warfare equipment in Saudi Arabia, deployed last year under a 2010 military training agreement to help protect energy infrastructure. Turkish officials told Middle East Eye earlier this month that Ankara plans to add more personnel, technicians and emergency response teams with accompanying combat forces, as well as pilots, aircraft and a limited number of special forces once parliament grants approval, though officials stressed that Türkiye does not plan to send large numbers of soldiers or to intervene directly in Yemen.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said the pact is not an offensive agreement and that Türkiye will not send troops to attack another country’s territory, while another Turkish official told Reuters that Ankara’s contribution so far has been limited to military equipment, intelligence sharing and weapons systems. Türkiye has also agreed to join a Saudi-led coalition for shipping security in the Red Sea.

Turkish forces would join a growing number of foreign militaries helping defend the kingdom, after Pakistan sent fighter jets and support aircraft to King Abdulaziz Air Base in April and Britain announced on Oct. 20 that Royal Air Force Typhoons will fly defensive patrols over Saudi Arabia. Neither the size of the Turkish deployment nor its timing will be set until parliament votes on both the treaty and the separate troop mandate.