13/08/2026
New Playbook Live episode is up: Ankara's Read, with Istanbul-based journalist Mete Sohtaoğlu.
Turkey already has a defence guarantee through NATO, where it has the second largest army in the alliance. So why did it just sign another one, alongside Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, in the Mecca Pact? What has it actually promised, how does it hold together its Gaza role under Trump with a pact many read as aimed at Israel, and what does record ten billion dollars in defence exports have to do with any of it?
Most of the coverage on this pact has come from Riyadh or Islamabad. This is the Ankara side nobody's explained yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVds-tKp0GY
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Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a defence agreement in Mec...