Türkiye will suspend its participation in the contract on ordinary armed forces in Europe (DOVS). This was announced on Friday by the official representative of the Foreign Ministry of Turkey Ondig Khecheli.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that the Decree of the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the suspension of Dovsa was published in Resmi Gazete (“Official Bulletin”). The document will enter into force on April 8, he said.
The diplomat emphasized that Ankara does not leave Dovs, but only suspend his implementation.
According to him, Russia left Dovs on November 7, 2023, as a result of which “it was not possible to continue the constructive implementation of the contract.” “On November 7, the NATO Council made an appropriate statement about this issue. Turkey also made a statement in which it announced its decision and indicated its reasons. The date of entry into force of the NATO allies on the suspension of the contract is determined by each allied in accordance with its national legislation, ”he said.
Kecheli added that the decision to suspend the participation of Ankara in Dovs can be revised.
The Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (DOVS) was signed on November 19, 1990 in Paris by plenipotentiary representatives of sixteen states – NATO participants (Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, Netherlands Norway, Portugal, USA, Turkey and France) and six states of the Warsaw Agreement (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, USSR and Czechoslovakia) and entered into force on November 9, 1992.
At the basis of Dovs, it was a system of quantitative restrictions on five main categories of conventional weapons and equipment in the usual armed forces of the participating states in the area of application of the contract -combat tanks, military armored vehicles, artillery, shock helicopters and combat aircraft.
According to Article 19 of the DOVS “Each state-participating state in the order of its national sovereignty has the right to get out of it if it decides that exceptional circumstances jeopardized its highest interests.”