How NATO Leaders Reacted to Erdoğan's Elaborate Firearm Gift
The gifts were engraved with recipients’ names and came with live ammunition, prompting officials in several countries to log, inspect or transfer them.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented NATO leaders with personalized.357 Magnum revolvers during the summit in Ankara from July 7 to July 8, each engraved with the recipient's name and displayed in a wooden case with cleaning kit and ammunition.
- Intended to showcase Turkey's growing defense manufacturing sector, the gifts reflect Ankara's broader strategy to promote its domestic industry and encourage closer industrial cooperation with allied nations.
- Visiting delegations confronted strict firearms regulations in their home countries, as officials weighed how to legally transport, store, or dispose of the weapons—a challenge underscoring how exceptionally uncommon firearms are as diplomatic gifts.
- Governments adopted varied approaches: Portugal's Prime Minister Luís Montenegro surrendered the revolver to police for forensic analysis, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis donated his to the Athens War Museum, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz arranged transfer to Berlin.
- Canadian PM Mark Carney joked his country's maple syrup gift 'undermatched' the vintage weapon, calling it 'something for the war museum,' while the UK left its firearm in Turkey for deactivation and Spain transferred its gun to the Interior Ministry.
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16 Articles
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Carney’s Turkish revolver gift runs into Canada’s own handgun freeze
Yegwave on XAuthor: Clayton DeMaineTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave personalized engraved pistols to NATO leaders at this week’s NATO summit, but it looks like Western countries’ laws around firearms and accepting gifts exceeding $1,000 mean Prime Minister Mark Carney can’t even use the gift.As first reported by Reuters, the Prime Minister’s Office said Mark Carney immediately turned over the expensive revolver engraved with his name …
Erdogan's NATO gift of revolvers leaves Western leaders with legal headaches
At the NATO summit in Turkiye, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave visiting leaders engraved revolvers and ammunition. The unusual gift highlighted Turkiye's defence push but ran into strict gun laws, forcing decommissioning, police handovers and museum donations.
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