Erdogan's most uncomfortable gift to NATO: pistols with bullets for Ankara's leaders

The NATO summit in Ankara ended with a gift difficult to explain in any protocol manual. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, host of the event, gave allied leaders a personalized revolver with live ammunition, engraved with the name of each recipient and accompanied by the necessary documentation to take it out of Turkey.

The gift arrived in a wooden box with the Turkish flag and the NATO logo. According to images released by the Presidency of Lithuania and reported by Reuters, it would be a Gümüşay .357 Magnum, a model manufactured in Turkey in the nineties by MKE and presented as the first revolver-type pistol produced in the country.

The choice of gift did not go unnoticed. Ankara had just hosted a summit marked by military spending, Donald Trump's pressure on European allies, and Turkey's attempt to showcase itself as an essential player in the defense industry. NATO's final declaration announced more than 50 billion dollars in new purchases and the commitment to expand the Alliance's industrial capacity.

Sánchez leaves it to the Ministry of Interior

Pedro Sánchez also received the revolver from Erdogan. Government sources have confirmed that the weapon is under the custody of the Ministry of the Interior, which will be responsible for disabling it before inventorying it and storing it as an institutional gift.

The handling of the gift has forced several delegations to improvise. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever handed the weapon to the Brussels airport police upon discovering the nature of the gift after landing. Keir Starmer chose to leave his in Turkey to avoid problems with strict British firearms regulations. In the case of Ursula von der Leyen, the intention is to disable it and then donate it to a military museum.

Other governments have followed similar paths. The Netherlands and Sweden deposited the revolvers in their embassies in Ankara, Italy took it to Palazzo Chigi as a state gift, and Greece plans to hand it over to the War Museum of Athens. The gift has ended up traveling through more security offices than diplomatic display cases.

Erdogan's military showcase

The gesture fits with Erdogan's strategy of turning the Turkish defense industry into a tool of foreign influence. Turkey has been strengthening its role as a supplier of drones, military vehicles, light weapons, and defense systems for years, and the Ankara summit offered it a top-level showcase before allied governments.

Reuters cites the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey to place Turkey as the third largest global exporter of light weapons between 2019 and 2024, only behind the United States and Italy, with exports close to 3 billion dollars in that period.

The gift has something of a political message. Erdogan did not offer a neutral piece of craftsmanship, nor a cultural symbol without edges. He chose a real weapon at a summit where allies spoke of more spending, more purchases, more production, and more industrial autonomy. 

A summit with too much gunpowder

Erdogan's pistol arrived after two tense days in Ankara. Trump again lashed out at Spain for not accepting the jump to 5% of GDP in defense and threatened to cut trade relations, although he later softened his tone and spoke of a supposed Spanish "redemption." The Alliance tried to close the meeting with a message of unity, support for Ukraine, and industrial reinforcement, but political noise again accompanied every photo.

In this context, the Turkish president's gift functions almost as an image of the era. A NATO pushed to rearm, a Europe forced to strengthen its military industry, a Trump pressuring his allies, and a host who bids farewell to leaders with a revolver and six bullets.

In Spain, the weapon's journey is now in the hands of the Interior Ministry. First, it will be rendered inoperable. Then it will pass into the inventory of institutional gifts received by the Prime Minister and will be stored according to official procedure.