Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held separate phone calls with his French and German counterparts on Monday, days after Türkiye signed a trilateral defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Fidan spoke with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, according to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources.

The ministers discussed regional developments during the calls, the sources said.

The talks came after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on Aug. 7.

The trilateral agreement seeks to deepen defense cooperation between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and strengthen commitments to regional and global security, stability and burden-sharing.

The agreement has drawn attention as Ankara expands its defense partnerships and diplomatic engagement across the region.

Minister Fidan said Saturday that the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement is technically the same as Article 5 of the NATO treaty concerning collective defense.

He underlined that the agreement signed by Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aims to contribute to lasting stability in the region.

“There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” Fidan noted, adding that the agreement does not target any country that does not attack its signatories.

Fidan described the signing of the agreement as a “historic day,” saying it represented one of the milestones that Türkiye had been pursuing for years under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership.

Fidan noted the agreement had received strong support, particularly from countries in the Islamic world, including countries that were not members but were almost as pleased with the agreement as if they themselves had joined it.

He said there were also supporters in the West who understood the substance of the initiative.

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The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) filed two complaints on Monday challenging the result of the election for a new deputy mayor of Istanbul’s Üsküdar district, as well as the election process itself.

The district, a former AK Party stronghold, was lost to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the 2024 local elections. Mayor Sinem Dedetaş was arrested in July on corruption charges, triggering an election to choose an acting mayor. CHP candidate Sibel Tan Çetinkaya won the election, receiving 22 votes from municipal assembly members in the fourth round on Aug. 5. The AK Party, however, alleged irregularities in the voting process.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse where they filed their complaints, AK Party Üsküdar District Chair Taha Sarıcaoğlu said they would also file a lawsuit at the administrative court seeking the annulment of the election and the municipal assembly’s decision, as well as a rerun of the election.

Sarıcaoğlu said the election should be regarded not only as a reflection of the political groups represented in the assembly but also of the will of the people of Üsküdar as expressed at the ballot box.

He said protecting the will of assembly members was a fundamental requirement of democracy, but alleged that incidents during the election process had cast a shadow over the free expression of that will. He said practices that raised questions about election security and the principle of a secret ballot had taken place in full public view.

He said six CHP assembly members voted in favor of Dündar Ziya Gültekin, the candidate of the People’s Alliance, comprising the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), in the third round, after which the election was interrupted in a manner contrary to the normal course of proceedings. He said their requests for the election to continue without an adjournment or interruption were not heeded.

Speaking about what happened during the break, Sarıcaoğlu said: “It was alleged that CHP assembly members were threatened in their group room by the provincial chairman of a party whose name is ‘New’ but whose practices and conduct are old, and that they were pressured to change their preferences in the final round.”

He was referring to Özgür Çelik of the New Party (YP), which was established last month by former CHP Chair Özgür Özel. Çelik, who was previously the CHP’s Istanbul provincial chairperson, joined the YP after leaving the CHP.

“Indeed, the picture changed after the break, and it became necessary to assess the change that occurred between the third and fourth rounds together with the allegations of threats, blackmail and pressure during the break,” Sarıcaoğlu said.

He also addressed disputes over the validity of some ballots in the fourth round, saying votes were deemed invalid based on different interpretations of letters and markings appearing on the ballots.

Saying that what happened in this round further deepened the controversy surrounding the election process, Sarıcaoğlu displayed the ballots in his possession and said: “The letter G on this ballot was interpreted as a 6,” referring to the initial of his candidate’s surname. “Another absurdity in legal terms, although it may sound somewhat comical, was that the letter Z was interpreted as a T and a 2. Another arbitrary action was to deem invalid a vote cast for our candidate, Dündar Ziya Gültekin, because of a line drawn to make the letter K more prominent.”

Sarıcaoğlu said Assembly Chair Ali Aral had said during the counting of the votes: “The votes got mixed up. I mixed up the votes. Which one was invalid?” He said the confusion over which ballots the votes and objections related to raised serious questions about the reliability of the election.

Sarıcaoğlu said the validity of votes should be assessed solely within the framework of the relevant regulations, noting that the ballots were not pre-printed and that assembly members had written the candidates’ names and surnames by hand.

“If it is clear from the name written which candidate was chosen, that vote is valid. The appearance of a letter, its curvature, rewriting it or its resemblance to a number cannot make that vote invalid,” Sarıcaoğlu said.

Sarıcaoğlu said the result of the fourth round was announced twice during the session, each time differently, and that a correction was subsequently announced. He claimed that the vote distribution in the corrected announcement also did not correspond with the situation recorded during the counting of the ballots.

Sarıcaoğlu said these incidents could also be seen in footage recorded inside the Üsküdar Municipality assembly chamber.

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Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş met Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker in Ankara on Monday, with talks focusing on strengthening bilateral and interparliamentary cooperation as well as regional and global developments.

Kurtulmuş received Stocker at Parliament in Ankara on Monday as part of the Austrian leader’s official visit to Türkiye.

During the meeting, Kurtulmuş and Stocker discussed bilateral relations, with particular emphasis on cooperation between the two countries’ parliaments, as well as regional and global developments.

The two officials also exchanged views on steps that could further strengthen ties between Türkiye and Austria.

Kurtulmuş thanked Stocker for his visit and expressed hope that the talks would contribute to further deepening Türkiye-Austria relations.

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The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was the surprise alliance of the week in a region embroiled in turmoil. Although negotiations were underway for some time to build the pact among Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, it was only after its signing that the details fully surfaced.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who was present during the signing of the deal in the Saudi city where Islam was born, explained it in detail in a lengthy interview and reassured that it was a “defense deal,” not a means to attack any specific country. Fidan also signaled that Egypt might join the trio in the near future.

The agreement embodies the spirit of alliance among three countries that already enjoy close ties. One of its highlights is that it stipulates that an attack on one of the parties would be deemed an attack on all and, therefore, would require a joint response.

It came against the backdrop of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, which has spread across the region, with Iran targeting other countries it views as supportive of the U.S. and disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

“I believe that at the next stage, Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,” Fidan said in an interview with Anadolu Agency (AA) late Saturday. “There are a few technical issues. Once these are resolved, there is no reason for Egypt not to be part of it.”

Fidan said the agreement does not target a specific country. “There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” he said. His remarks were a response to media reports and critics of the agreement who claimed it would prompt joint action against Iran, whose affiliates in Yemen recently targeted Saudi Arabia. Türkiye itself, through NATO defense systems, intercepted several missiles in the early days of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war. On the other hand, Türkiye and Pakistan were at the forefront of efforts to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiation table to secure a cease-fire and a lasting peace.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that the pact was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence.”

Fidan said the agreement was “the most important step toward bringing lasting stability to this region” and suggested the alliance could expand further. “Under our president’s vision, we should not remain limited to three countries. We should grow and, if necessary, bring all countries under this umbrella,” he said. The vision aligns with Türkiye’s peace diplomacy, which seeks to keep Türkiye in close connection with all sides of a conflict and diversify Türkiye’s alliances, which, in the past, were firmly anchored in Western-centric alliances. Türkiye remains committed to NATO and other alliances in the meantime.

Fidan said Saturday that the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement is technically the same as Article 5 of the NATO Treaty concerning collective defense.

Fidan said discussions on the initiative began before the current war environment, when there was no Iran-U.S.-Israel war, but Türkiye anticipated that American security concerns in the region would change, other developments would emerge and its fight against terrorism would remain on the agenda.

He stressed that Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are not expansionist countries.

“Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye, when you look at their foreign policy positions, are not countries that have expansionist policies. They are countries concerned with their own borders, their own problems and their development; if possible, they want to contribute positively to their environment through good relations and good neighborliness,” he said.

Fidan said the three countries have different styles and capacities, but when brought together, they naturally form a defense-oriented organization rather than an offensive one. “Now, when we come together with these countries, naturally we are becoming a defense-oriented organization. It is not an approach of going on the offensive and saying, ‘Let’s do this or that together.’ Therefore, unless it is attacked by a country, whether from inside or outside the region, this alliance cannot have any dispute with any country. But, of course, the power composition we have put forward will make a constructive contribution to regional stability,” he said, stressing the reasons for advancing the initiative and emphasizing that Iran was not the target of the agreement. He added that countries that do not attack the signatories are not considered targets.

Fidan said the alliance had been examined closely from legal, political, and strategic perspectives and that Türkiye saw no problem with the framework. He also noted that NATO countries had previously concluded similar agreements.

“Under our president’s vision, we should not remain limited to three countries. We should grow and, if necessary, bring all countries under this umbrella,” he said. “The Mecca agreement is the most important step toward bringing lasting stability to this region,” Fidan said, adding that the region has experienced instability in the past century since the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire.

He described the signing of the agreement as a “historic day,” saying it represented one of the milestones that Türkiye had been pursuing for years under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership.

Fidan said increasing regional ownership of security issues is central to Türkiye’s approach.

“External hegemons coming into the region do not solve the problems; they make them more acute, and the cost becomes very high,” he said, arguing that regional countries should develop more institutional mechanisms through which they can ensure their own security, economic stability, development and prosperity.

Fidan said Türkiye has strong relations with almost all countries in the region. “But these were relations that were largely shaped by the prevailing circumstances, political perceptions and understandings, and could change at any moment.”

He said Ankara seeks to make its regional ties more lasting and structured to promote stability, stressing that lasting economic integration requires security and mutual trust.

Citing the EU as an example, Fidan said the European Economic Community took shape in the environment provided by the American security umbrella. He said Türkiye’s regional vision similarly seeks to reduce instability and eventually foster greater economic and social integration, improving the prosperity of regional populations.

Fidan acknowledged that the initiative is at an early stage and will not be easy to establish, but said Türkiye has already completed the conceptual and institutional preparations. The minister said preparations for the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement had been underway for nearly three years, with talks involving signatories and other regional countries. He said the process evolved from an initial idea into a concept and ultimately an agreement, while Erdoğan had also repeatedly raised the issue with regional leaders.

Fidan said the Mecca initiative is not a new phenomenon within NATO and stressed that Türkiye is a country that is aware of its responsibilities.

“Türkiye is also a country that is aware of its responsibilities. We are in no position to keep these different geographies and different priorities in conflict with one another,” he said.

He said this was an area that needed to be managed and noted that he raised the issue during a meeting with his German counterpart.

Fidan also noted Türkiye’s objective was based on regional ownership and that Ankara had weight in several strategic locations, adding that there had also been serious discussions about what could be done in terms of a security architecture with Europe.

“Türkiye, by virtue of its geography, has a strategic orientation toward Europe and the broader European geography through the Caucasus, Middle East, Black Sea, Mediterranean and Balkans. Here, you need to develop a perspective for each strategic basin and harmonize these perspectives even if areas of tension emerge,” he said.

Türkiye’s experience within NATO had shown that Ankara has different geographic conditions from other members, particularly regarding the Middle East and Caucasus, and those have been analyzed, he said. He said Türkiye’s strategic sphere was broad and that each strategic basin had different positions and conditions, requiring separate approaches. Fidan said Türkiye was seeking to develop security and economic architectures for those areas together with regional countries rather than through a hegemonic approach.

“We are not going with a hegemonic understanding, so we need to do this together with the countries of the region. Following the agreement in the Caucasus, hopefully, there is currently a cease-fire – a cease-fire that is working well. Armenia and Azerbaijan are moving toward a permanent peace agreement, and we support this. While supporting this, we have a security and economic architecture perspective in mind,” he said.

Asked whether a similar structure could be established in the Caucasus and Central Asia, Fidan said those arrangements could be built when necessary, noting that some regions could place greater emphasis on economic needs.

He said the Middle East’s main problem was currently war, mutual distrust and conflict, making it necessary to begin with a security architecture, while Europe was also seeking a new security architecture. Fidan stressed that European and Middle Eastern security architectures could eventually be harmonized through Türkiye “in the long term, and even in the medium term. The intellectual and conceptual preparations for this have actually been established,” he said. He said both regions ultimately sought security, economic development, and the ability to remain competitive, but stressed that such ideas were gradually taking shape and that putting them into practice would take time, with Europe’s transformation likely to take longer.

‘Muslim NATO’

Some Turkish media outlets portrayed the Mecca agreement as the realization of the “Muslim NATO” vision, first voiced by the late Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who also happens to be the political mentor of President Erdoğan. Erbakan advocated closer ties with Muslim countries in the face of Türkiye’s past foreign policies, which were largely steered by relations with Europe and the United States. Erbakan often repeated his proposal for strengthening Muslim unity across the world through a joint economic zone, joint currency and military alliance, in the fashion of the EU and NATO. His “Muslim NATO” vision primarily aimed to deter Israel.

Similarly, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the government ally of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party), has suggested an Islamic alliance for security repeatedly over the past two years. In a written statement in August 2024, Bahçeli proposed the formation of a “Jerusalem Pact” comprising Türkiye, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other regional countries to ensure peace in the Middle East. He underlined that the pact was necessary to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza, for the preservation of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and for the safety of Palestinians.

“We attach great importance, from the perspective of our national security, to the political and economic stabilization of the Middle East and North Africa region, which forms part of Türkiye’s security perimeter. In this context, we consider the establishment of a ‘Jerusalem Pact’ involving Türkiye and other Islamic countries to be necessary for our country’s security as well. At this stage, it has become an urgent and unavoidable necessity for all countries in the region to stand on their own feet, to demonstrate the ability to use their own resources and capabilities for the future of their peoples rather than according to policies dictated by imperialist powers; and to free the region from being a source and center of terrorism, which is a crime against humanity,” Bahçeli stated back then.

Turkish officials assured that the passage through the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea was continuing amid spillover of the Russia-Ukraine war into the latter.

On Saturday, Bloomberg ​News reported ⁠that Ankara had restricted commercial ship traffic entering the Black Sea following attacks on vessels there, including Turkish-owned ships. Türkiye has issued repeated warnings to Moscow and Kyiv over the attacks in the Black Sea, urging the warring sides to take measures to ensure navigational safety in the area. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara had conveyed ⁠to ⁠Moscow and Kyiv that they should declare a moratorium on their attacks in the Black Sea.

Two Turkish government officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Türkiye had implemented some temporary measures because it had been highly uncomfortable about security for some time, but that passage was clear under the conditions ⁠of the Montreux Convention. They did not give further detail.

The 1936 Montreux Convention of the Regime of the Straits gives Türkiye ​control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles, and the power to ​regulate transit of naval warships. It also guarantees the free passage of civilian vessels ⁠in peacetime and ‌restricts the passage of ships not ⁠belonging to Black Sea countries. Türkiye, ‌which has NATO’s second-largest army, has maintained cordial ties with ​both Kyiv and Moscow ⁠since the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted in 2022. It has refused to join Western sanctions ⁠on Russia, ​while providing military support, including from its own inventory, to Ukraine.

Apart from attacks on Turkish-owned ships, Türkiye has also seen stray drones falling on its territories and territorial waters. On Sunday, the governorate of Artvin in northeastern Türkiye announced that an unmanned maritime vehicle detected off the Black Sea shore of Hopa district was demolished in a controlled way. The governorate did not specify the origin of the vehicle but said in a statement that the discovery was similar to those in the past after the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.

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Turkish Parliament’s General Assembly passed a bill amending the Child Protection Law on Saturday, putting an end, for now, to a debate over minors getting away with serious crimes such as murder.

The law stipulates prison terms of between 19 and 27 years for offenses punishable by aggravated life imprisonment when committed by offenders who were between the ages of 15 and 18 at the time of the crime. It also mandates prison terms of between 15 and 18 years for offenses punishable by life imprisonment.

The bill has been on lawmakers’ agenda for some time in light of several notorious murders committed by offenders under the age of 18, often targeting their peers, as well as the rise of criminal gangs exploiting young people to carry out crimes such as extortion and contract killings targeting rival gangs and businesses that refuse to pay extortion demands.

Under the new law, judges are granted discretionary authority so that age-based sentence reductions may not be applied to children in the 15-18 age group who commit intentional homicide or aggravated injury resulting in severe consequences. In addition, the penalty regime applicable to an older age group may be applied to children in the 12-15 age group.

Any person who enables a child to obtain a firearm as a result of failing to fulfill their duty of care and supervision will be sentenced to imprisonment from one to three years, provided that the act does not constitute another offense carrying a heavier penalty.

The phrase “juvenile pushed into crime” in the Child Protection Law has also been replaced with “child in the judicial process.” If a public prosecution is initiated against a child, the case will be reported to the provincial or district directorates of the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of National Education so that the necessary administrative measures can be taken.

A new article added to the Child Protection Law establishes “guidance measures” as child-specific security measures for children involved in judicial proceedings who lack criminal responsibility. Under the amendment, conducting a social investigation will be mandatory for children under the age of 15. If a social investigation is not conducted by the public prosecutor, the court, or the juvenile judge for a child aged 15 or older, the reasons must be specified in the indictment or judicial decision.

Justice Minister Akın Gürlek hailed the new law and regulations in a social media post on Sunday. He said the legislation paved the way for more deterrent sanctions for serious crimes, adding that efforts to combat the exploitation of children by criminal groups had also been strengthened.

“While protecting our children from the dangers of criminal organizations, street gangs, drugs, violence and the digital world, we will also decisively fulfill the requirements of justice in the face of serious crimes that threaten the lives and property of our citizens. Under the leadership of our president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, we will continue to develop our justice system for a safer and fairer Türkiye, where our children grow up in safety and the peace of our families is strengthened,” Gürlek said.

Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said the law had become “the voice of the voiceless.”

“This law does not merely punish; it cuts off the path leading to crime, anticipates risks before they emerge, and serves as a shield for our children,” Çiftçi said in a social media post on Sunday.

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