ANKARA, Turkey — World leaders arrived in Turkey this week for a NATO summit focused on global security challenges. What they didn’t expect was to leave carrying a firearm.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented each attending leader with an engraved .357 Magnum revolver and six rounds of ammunition. According to Turkish media reports, the weapon is the Gumusay model — a vintage six-shot revolver manufactured by MKE, Turkey’s state-owned arms producer.
The gesture was designed to draw attention to Turkey’s booming defense industry, which has evolved over recent decades from being a heavy importer of military equipment to a largely self-sufficient producer of advanced systems, including drones and warships. The country is also working on its own next-generation fighter jet.
But the gift left many alliance members in a bind. Gun laws in several NATO countries made it impossible — or at least very complicated — for leaders to simply take the weapons home.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney quipped about the awkward situation when speaking to reporters, saying his own gift of maple syrup suddenly seemed modest by comparison. “I would like to reassure Canadians, they keep guns away from me,” he said, confirming the revolver had been turned over to police.
Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar shared a photo on X of the display box holding his revolver and six cartridges. “An unusual gift from President @RTErdogan at the NATO Summit: a Magnum revolver with ammunition, engraved with my name,” he wrote. What he ultimately did with the firearm was not immediately known.
European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen accepted the gift graciously, but her spokesperson confirmed it would be deactivated and donated to a military museum.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted that the gift package included documentation waiving export controls, but said he still left the weapon behind since importing it into the United Kingdom would be illegal. It will be decommissioned.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever handed his revolver directly to airport police upon returning home. The firearms given to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten were left at their respective countries’ embassies in Ankara and will also be taken out of service, officials confirmed.
In Italy, the weapon was officially logged as a gift at Palazzo Chigi, the official office of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Greek officials said their country’s firearm would go to the War Museum.
Croatian President Zoran Milanović said he wasn’t even aware Erdogan had given him a gun until after he had already returned home from the summit. His office indicated the revolver would likely be turned over to a police museum. Milanović offered a characteristically blunt take on the situation: “I didn’t take it. I shoot from different weapons,” a reference to his outspoken political approach.
The White House did not respond to questions about what happened to the revolver given to the American delegation.
Erdogan’s office has not made any public statement about the gifts. Turkish gun culture runs deep, and the gesture generated little reaction domestically. However, the gun control advocacy group Umut Vakfi noted that armed violence in Turkey has reached troubling levels, with more than 2,700 incidents recorded last year in the country of 86 million people.
In addition to the revolvers, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that summit attendees also received a copy of Erdogan’s biography, titled “The politics of courage: Erdogan and the rise of Türkiye.”
