Gun With A Name, Bullets And A Waiver: Turkey's Unusual Gift To NATO Leaders

NATO leaders were in for a surprise when they found that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had offered them each a revolver as a parting gift after the summit in Ankara. Each leader received a wooden box containing a vintage handgun engraved with their name and live ammunition. 

Erdogan wanted to showcase Turkey's defence industry, which has become a key export and foreign policy tool. Images shared by several world leaders showed what appeared to be the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a rare six-shooter produced by Turkish arms maker MKE in the 1990s.

It was set in a wooden display box, lined in black, featuring Turkey's flag and the NATO logo as well as a placard inscribed "Gumusay, the first revolver-type handgun produced in our country" in Turkish and English. Alongside the gun were six live rounds and a note exempting the weapons from export controls.

What Do World Leaders Do With A Gun? 

What does a world leader do with a gun and six bullets? That was the conundrum NATO leaders faced after receiving the unusual gift. Several revolvers, including those belonging to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, have for now remained in the Turkish capital itself, and for good reasons. 

Depending on the laws in force, transporting firearms is often far from straightforward, especially when they are fully functional.

What Leaders Said About The Gun

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was the first to mention it. On the flight back from Ankara -- where NATO leaders had gathered for two days -- Starmer said he and others received a revolver engraved with their names. It came with a cleaning kit and 500 bullets, a Downing Street source said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's spokesperson said all the leaders had been given the same model, with their names engraved on the barrel.

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini showed reporters the gift presented during his plane ride home.

🇸🇰🇹🇷 Slovak President Peter Pellegrini shows reporters a gift presented by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the NATO summit.#Slovakia #Turkey #NATO #PeterPellegrini #Erdogan #NATOSummit #Diplomacy #WorldNews pic.twitter.com/hrGtjaC4ZC

— WorldNewsRank (@WNewsRankX) July 10, 2026

The Immigration Scenes

The unusual gift gave rise to some "insane" scenes among the various delegations' security teams.

The Belgian premier, Bart De Wever, handed his to Brussels' airport police to be secured in a safe.

An aide to Polish President Karol Nawrocki told Radio RMF FM that his revolver was awaiting customs clearance at Warsaw Airport and would be kept in an appropriate place "so that it is firstly safe and secondly respected as a gift".

"Certainly no one will be shooting it," he added.

The offices of the Dutch and Swedish prime ministers said their revolvers had been taken to their respective embassies in Ankara. The Dutch one was due to be disabled while the Swedish one was awaiting import paperwork.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's revolver was already stored at the seat of government, the Palazzo Chigi, along with other state gifts.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was intending to donate hers to a military museum, while the leader of Greece planned to give his to the War Museum in Athens.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joked that "it struck me that my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched" to the Turkish present. He said he had not actually seen the pistol.

"I would like to reassure Canadians - they keep guns away from me," he told a press conference, saying the revolver had been deactivated and might end up in the national war museum.

Carney took his revolver with him but left the ammunition in Turkey, Canadian officials said. They did not explain why.

A Nod to Turkey's Defence Industry

While it is very common for heads of state to exchange various gifts during meetings or summits, such exchanges rarely require these kinds of precautions.

Turkey's modern handgun industry focuses mainly on semi-automatics, making the Gumusay something of a collector's curiosity.

Turkish gunmakers have muscled into Europe's civilian firearms market with inexpensive pistols and shotguns, challenging older Italian and Belgian names long associated with higher-priced sporting and service weapons.

According to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, Turkey was the world's third-largest exporter of small arms between 2019 and 2024, with exports totalling about $3 billion over the period, behind the United States and Italy.