NATO Summit Gift Raises Eyebrows
Western leaders attending the recent NATO summit in Turkey were left with a unique souvenir from their host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The President gifted each leader an engraved revolver, along with six rounds of ammunition, in an attempt to showcase Turkey’s growing defense industry.
The unconventional gift has sparked a mix of reactions from officials across the alliance. While some leaders were forced to leave their gifts behind due to strict gun laws in their countries, others donated theirs to museums or handed them over to airport police.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, for instance, chose to leave his gift behind, stating that his own gift of maple syrup ‘kind of undermatched’ the revolver. The Canadian Prime Minister also reassured his nation that he keeps guns away from him.
Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar proudly displayed his engraved Magnum revolver on social media, while European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen thanked Erdogan for the gift, which will be decommissioned and donated to a military museum.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer opted to leave his gift behind, citing concerns over export controls. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever handed his revolver to airport police upon arrival, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten left theirs at their countries’ embassies in Ankara.
In Italy, the gun was logged as a gift at Palazzo Chigi, the official seat of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Greek officials, on the other hand, stated that the firearm would be donated to the War Museum. Croatian President Zoran Milanović revealed that he only discovered he had received a gun after his return from the summit and that it would likely be handed over to a police museum.
The White House has yet to comment on Erdogan’s gift to the leaders. Erdogan’s office has also remained silent on the matter.
The revolvers gifted to the leaders were identified as the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a vintage six-shot revolver produced by the Turkish state arms manufacturer, MKE. According to reports, the gun aimed to highlight Turkey’s defense industry, which has transformed from a major importer into a self-reliant producer of advanced military systems, including drones and warships.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that 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 Türkiye.’
Gun culture is deeply rooted in Turkey, and the gift hardly triggered any reaction in the country. However, Umut Vakfi, a foundation campaigning for gun control, noted that incidents of armed violence have reached alarming levels in the country, with over 2,700 reported cases last year in a population of 86 million people.
