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An unusual farewell gift from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to NATO leaders has forced several European governments to navigate police, customs, embassy, and official storage procedures following the Ankara summit.
The gifts—custom-engraved revolvers packaged with live ammunition—moved beyond symbolic display items, sparking immediate legal and security questions as soon as the leaders returned home.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever was among the leaders whose delegation had to take official steps after the summit. According to Reuters, De Wever was surprised to find a handgun and ammunition in his luggage after landing back in Belgium.
The firearm was then handed over to Brussels airport police and secured in a safe. The move reflected the legal concerns around bringing a firearm and ammunition into Belgium through ordinary luggage, even when the item was received as a diplomatic gift.
The revolvers were presented after NATO leaders gathered in Ankara for the summit. Erdogan reportedly intended the gifts to highlight Türkiye’s defense industry, which has become an increasingly important export sector and foreign policy tool.
Images shared by the office of Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda showed what appeared to be the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a rare six-shot revolver produced by Turkish arms maker MKE in the 1990s.
The handgun was placed in a wooden display box featuring Türkiye’s flag, the NATO logo and a placard describing the Gumusay as “the first revolver-type handgun produced in our country” in Turkish and English.
A spokesperson for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said all leaders received the same model, each engraved with the recipient’s own name. The presence of live ammunition showed that the weapons were not merely ceremonial objects.
Because of the nature of the gifts, several governments moved to handle the revolvers through police, customs, embassies or official state gift procedures rather than treating them as personal items.
Other NATO leaders also took formal steps to deal with the gifts. 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 would be both safe and respected as a gift.
“Certainly no one will be shooting it,” the aide said.
The offices of the Dutch and Swedish prime ministers said their revolvers had been taken to their respective embassies in Ankara. The Dutch weapon was due to be disabled, while the Swedish one was awaiting import paperwork.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s revolver had already been stored at Palazzo Chigi, the seat of government, alongside other state gifts. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was planning to donate hers to a military museum.
The firearm given to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer came with a cleaning kit and 500 bullets, according to a Downing Street source.
The detail added to the unusual nature of the gifts, as governments across Europe worked out how to process the revolvers under their own legal and security rules.
Türkiye’s modern handgun industry mainly focuses on semi-automatic pistols, making the Gumusay an unusual item within the country’s arms production history.
Turkish gunmakers have also expanded into Europe’s civilian firearms market with lower-cost pistols and shotguns, challenging older Italian and Belgian manufacturers known for higher-priced sporting and service weapons.
According to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, Türkiye was the world’s third-largest small arms exporter between 2019 and 2024, with exports totaling about $3 billion during that period, behind the United States and Italy.
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