Engraved guns, 6 bullets: Turkiye’s gift to NATO heads
Western leaders came to Turkiye to discuss security in an increasingly perilous world. They each left with a revolver and six rounds.
The unconventional gift from the host of this week’s NATO summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was meant to showcase his country’s growing defence industry.
But it left officials across the alliance scratching their heads. Some were forced to leave their gifts behind due to gun laws in their countries, while others donated theirs to museums. “It struck me that my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters, adding that the firearm was now in police possession. “I would like to reassure Canadians, they keep guns away from me.” The revolvers were engraved with leaders’ names. “An unusual gift from President @RTErdogan at the NATO Summit: a Magnum revolver with ammunition, engraved with my name,” Hungary’s new Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on X, posting a photograph of a display box containing the revolver and six cartridges. It was not immediately clear what he did with the gift.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union commission president, thanked Erdogan for the gift, which will be decommissioned and donated to a military museum, her spokesperson said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters that the gift bag included a note waiving export controls.
Still, he left his behind to be decommissioned, because it would be illegal to import it into Britain. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever handed his revolver to airport police upon arrival. The revolvers gifted to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten were left at their countries’ embassies in Ankara and would also be taken out of service, officials said.
In Italy, the gun was logged as a gift at Palazzo Chigi — the official seat of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an official said. In Greece, officials said the firearm would be donated to the War Museum.
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said he only found out after his return from the summit that Erdogan had given him a gun. His office said it would probably be handed over to a police museum. “I didn’t take it. I shoot from different weapons,” Milanovic said, referring to his political style. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Erdogan’s gift to the leaders.
Erdogan’s office has not commented on the gift. Turkish media reports identified the revolver as the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a vintage six-shot revolver produced by the Turkish state arms manufacturer, MKE.
Reports said the gun aimed to highlight Turkiye’s defence industry, which in recent decades has transformed from a major importer into an increasingly self-reliant producer of advanced military systems, including drones and warships. It is in the process of developing its own next-generation fighter jet.
Gun culture is deeply rooted in Turkiye, and the gift hardly triggered any reaction in the country. Umut Vakfi, a foundation campaigning for gun control, says incidents of armed violence have reached alarming levels, reporting more than 2,700 last year in the country of 86 million people.
Turkiye’s State-run Anadolu Agency said participants at the summit were also given a more conventional gift: a copy of Erdogan’s biography, titled: “The politics of courage: Erdogan and the Rise of Turkiye.”
