Reuters —
The Belgian prime minister was a little surprised to find a handgun and ammunition in his luggage when he returned from a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday.
After NATO leaders gathered for a grueling summit in Ankara on Wednesday, host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan handed each of them an unusual parting gift. It was a vintage revolver and live ammunition, proving it wasn’t just for show.
President Erdoğan wanted to showcase Türkiye’s defense industry, which is an important instrument of export and foreign policy.
An image shared by the office of Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda shows what appears to be a Gumusai .357 Magnum, a rare six-shooter made by Turkish weapons manufacturer MKE in the 1990s.
It was housed in a wooden display box emblazoned with the Turkish flag and the NATO logo, along with a placard that read in Turkish and English: “Gumusai, the first revolver produced in our country.”
A spokesman for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said all leaders were given the same model with their names engraved on it.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Weber handed it over to Brussels airport police to keep 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 a suitable location “so that it is safe first and respected as a gift secondly.”
“Certainly no one will shoot,” he added.
The Dutch and Swedish prime ministers’ offices said the handguns were taken to their respective embassies in Ankara. The Dutch one was scheduled to be invalidated, and the Swedish one was awaiting import documents.
A Downing Street source said the gun given to Britain’s Keir Starmer came with a cleaning kit and 500 rounds of ammunition.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s pistol was already stored in the Chigi Palace, the government’s seat, along with gifts from other countries.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen planned to donate her work to a military museum, and the Greek leader planned to donate her work to the War Museum in Athens.
Turkey’s modern handgun industry is primarily focused on semi-automatic firearms, making Gumsai an object of collector curiosity.
Turkish gun makers are entering Europe’s civilian firearms market with cheaper pistols and shotguns, challenging established Italian and Belgian makers long associated with high-priced sporting and military weapons.
According to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, Turkey was the world’s third-largest exporter of small arms and light weapons from 2019 to 2024, with total exports totaling about $3 billion during the period, after the United States and Italy.
