Turkey’s mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is a step toward the ultimate ambition of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: to make Ankara a powerhouse across the entire territory of the old Ottoman Empire.The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed in Mecca on August 7 by Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, commits the three countries to a NATO-type alliance among Sunni states that would treat an attack on any one of them as an attack on all.The agreement gives Turkey access to assets it could not easily replicate on its own: Pakistan’s implicit nuclear deterrent and military capabilities, Saudi Arabia’s vast financial resources and influence across the Arab and Muslim worlds. Egypt has also been floated as a possible new member.The pact will help counterbalance Iranian regional power, but it will also position Turkey as the military and political leader of a “Sunni ring of fire,” advancing the Turkish president’s vision of a modern Ottoman sphere of influence, according to Chaim Silberstein, the chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP).“All these goals help him to progress and cement his position as the hegemon in the Middle East,” he said, arguing that the agreement helps resolve two significant obstacles to claiming leadership of the Muslim world, including not being a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad or an Arab.Ankara is seeking to expand its own military capabilities. At the NATO summit in Ankara last month, President Donald Trump said he would consider allowing Turkey to purchase F-35 stealth fighters, potentially reversing a ban imposed after Erdogan’s government bought Russia’s S-400 missile defense system. Turkey was removed from the F-35 program in 2019 over concerns that operating the Russian system alongside the American stealth fighter could expose sensitive information about the aircraft to Moscow. Congress subsequently prohibited the transfer of F-35s t