Cumhuriyet columnist Mehmet Ali Güller criticized the process by which the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was ratified in the TBMM and the stance of the political parties during the vote. Güller reported that the agreement was accepted with the votes of 279 deputies, while 119 deputies voted against it and 194 deputies did not participate in the vote.
According to the figures shared by Güller, 85 of the 194 deputies who did not participate in the vote came from parties in the ruling bloc. Of this number, 59 were from the AKP, 22 from the MHP, and 4 from HÜDA PAR. The number of deputies from opposition parties who did not participate in the vote was recorded as 109.
The article specifically addressed the stance of the CHP. Güller stated that 25 CHP deputies supported the agreement, while 19 did not participate in the vote. Criticizing this picture, Güller pointed out that the number of CHP deputies who supported the agreement was higher than the number of MHP deputies who voted "yes."
Güller argued that there was a change in stance within the CHP before the vote. In his article, he stated that Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had opposed the agreement text before it came to the TBMM, but as the vote approached, he moved toward a line of support with the formula, "We are supporting the state, not the government."
Including the remarks of Oğuz Kaan Salıcı, who spoke in the General Assembly on behalf of the CHP group, Güller recalled that Salıcı said, "We are in opposition until the end, but we believe that the Mecca Agreement is a security architecture agreement that will yield positive results for Turkey." It was reported that Salıcı explained the CHP's justification for voting "yes" by stating that the agreement was not a troop deployment agreement.
According to Güller, both the AKP and the CHP obscured the essence of the debate with the defense that the agreement did not carry the nature of "sending troops." Citing Article 92 of the Constitution, the author argued that while a TBMM decision is essential for sending Turkish troops to foreign countries, the debate over authorization differs when troops are sent pursuant to an international agreement.
At the end of the article, Güller argued that the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement is a text that could have serious consequences for Turkey, stating that the agreement was accepted without sufficient debate and with the votes of less than half of the deputies in the TBMM.
News Source: 12punto
