NATO leaders alarmed by Erdogan's engraved revolver gifts after Ankara summit

NATO leaders have been left dealing with an unusual security issue after Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gave several summit guests engraved revolvers in Ankara. The gifts, which reportedly came with six live rounds and a note exempting the weapons from export controls, were handed out after the two-day gathering. The episode prompted confusion among security teams and raised questions about how the items should be transported and stored.

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was among the first to speak publicly about the gift, saying on the flight home that he and others had received a revolver engraved with their names. Officials from several alliance member states described the reaction inside delegations as highly unusual, with some saying the handling of the weapons created "insane" scenes for security staff. The revolvers were presented in red boxes lined in black, according to the account from the summit.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever only learned the exact nature of his gift after landing in Belgium, an official said. He was said to have been surprised and immediately handed the revolver over to airport police so it could be placed in a secure safe and dealt with under the relevant procedures. The security team for the EU leaders based in Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, also had to manage the gifts and the protocol issues that followed.

The incident matters because it involved live ammunition at a high-level diplomatic event attended by leaders from across the alliance. Gifts of this kind are not routine at international summits, and the presence of functioning weapons created immediate security and customs concerns. It also placed pressure on the delegations to determine whether the items could be carried home, stored, decommissioned or transferred to authorities.

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Other leaders were also reported to have received similar revolvers, including the Hungarian prime minister, Peter Magyar, and the Polish president, Karol Nawrocki. Von der Leyen's spokesperson said she had thanked Erdogan for the gift and that the revolver would be decommissioned and donated to a military museum. In Poland, the reference to a previous 2022 incident involving a grenade launcher gifted from Ukraine remained fresh in official memory, underlining why security teams treated the matter cautiously.

What remains unclear is how many leaders received the weapons, whether all of them contained live rounds, and what final arrangements will be made for each item. The episode has already been handled differently by different delegations, with some involving police and others planning decommissioning or museum donation. The broader diplomatic impact is likely to depend on whether any further details emerge about the summit gifts and the procedures used to clear them through security.

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