The spokesman of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ondje Ketcelli, clarified that Turkey’s “suspension” of the implementation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) is a decision that can be reversed in the future.

According to the state news agency Anadolu, Turkish representative Ondje Ketcelli stated:

“The NATO Council made a statement on this issue on November 7. We also made another statement and announced our decision with its rationale. The effective date of decisions by NATO allies, who are contracting parties to the CFE Treaty, to suspend the implementation of the treaty is determined by each ally within the framework of its national legislation. The suspension has already taken effect by the overwhelming majority of allies who are contracting parties to the CFE Treaty. The internal legal process for the entry into force of our decision to suspend the implementation of the CFE Treaty as of April 8, 2024, has been completed, and the relevant Presidential Decree was published in the Official Gazette with a date of April 5, 2024.”

The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990, just a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. It placed limits on conventional military equipment that NATO and the then-Warsaw Pact could deploy, to prevent them from amassing forces that would allow one side to launch a rapid attack against the other in Europe.

Russia officially withdrew from the CFE Treaty on November 7 last year, although it had suspended its active participation since 2015. After Russia’s withdrawal, the United States also suspended the implementation of the treaty.