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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent NATO leaders home from last week's Ankara summit with an unusual parting gift: a custom-engraved vintage revolver, complete with live ammunition. What each leader did with it upon landing turned into a story of its own.
The weapon in question, identified from photographs shared by the Lithuanian president's office, was the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a rare six-shot revolver produced by Turkish state arms manufacturer MKE in the 1990s.
Presented in a wooden display box bearing Türkiye's flag and the NATO logo, each pistol came with a placard describing it as "the first revolver-type handgun produced in our country." Every leader received the same model, with their name engraved on the barrel, Spain's government confirmed.
The Gumusay is a product of a manufacturer with roots that stretch far deeper than the 1990s. MKE, formally established in 1950 as the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation and wholly owned by the Turkish Treasury, traces its lineage to a cannon foundry built in the latter part of the 15th century under Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror.
The organization supplied the Ottoman army's artillery corps for centuries before being reorganized multiple times, eventually becoming the primary supplier of the modern Turkish Armed Forces. Today MKE operates more than a dozen facilities and exports to over 40 countries.
The Gumusay itself stands as an anomaly in that long industrial history. Türkiye's modern handgun sector has shifted almost entirely toward semi-automatic pistols, leaving the Gumusay something of a collector's rarity.
According to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, Türkiye ranked as the world's third-largest small arms exporter between 2019 and 2024, with exports totaling roughly $3 billion over that period, behind only the United States and Italy.
Turkish manufacturers have in recent years expanded aggressively into the European civilian market with competitively priced pistols and shotguns, challenging the long-established dominance of Italian and Belgian makers.
Gifting the Gumusay was widely read as Erdogan's deliberate effort to spotlight that industrial rise, even through an artifact from its earlier chapter.
The revolvers came with live ammunition, which meant that upon landing, leaders and their teams faced the full weight of their countries' firearms laws rather than simple diplomatic gift protocols.
Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever discovered he was carrying a loaded handgun only when his luggage was screened on landing in Brussels; he handed the weapon to airport police for secure storage.
Poland's President Karol Nawrocki left his at customs in Warsaw Airport, with an aide saying it would be stored somewhere "firstly safe and secondly respectful of the gift," adding that "certainly no one will be shooting it."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's revolver, which reportedly arrived with a cleaning kit and 500 rounds of ammunition, was left in the custody of British officials in Türkiye and is to be deactivated before any transfer to the United Kingdom.
The Netherlands followed suit, sending its revolver to the Dutch embassy in Ankara to be rendered inoperable. Sweden's weapon was also held at its Ankara embassy, pending the completion of import paperwork.
Several leaders opted to route the firearms into institutional care entirely. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to donate hers to a military museum, while the Greek prime minister indicated his would go to the War Museum in Athens.
EU Council President Antonio Costa's revolver was taken by his security detail, with EU officials saying Belgian procedures would be followed before the weapon was stored under Council of Europe guidelines.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's revolver was placed at the Palazzo Chigi, the seat of the Italian government, alongside other official state gifts.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, quipping that his own gift of maple syrup "kind of undermatched" the Turkish gesture, said he had not personally seen the pistol and told a press conference, "I would like to reassure Canadians, they keep guns away from me." His office confirmed the revolver had been deactivated and transferred to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with the possibility it may eventually be displayed in Canada's national war museum.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte declined to take his at all. A NATO spokesperson said he appreciated the gesture but chose not to accept it.
Erdogan's revolver, engraved and boxed, ended up the summit's most discussed diplomatic object, now scattered across Europe in safes, embassy vaults, museum display plans and, in at least one case, back in Türkiye unclaimed.
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