Erdogan's revolver gifts spotlight Turkish arms export push
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gifted engraved .357 Magnum revolvers to NATO leaders at a summit in Ankara, a move that sparked security scrambles across European capitals while serving as a marketing vehicle for Turkey's rapidly growing small-arms industry.
NATO leaders left a two-day summit in Ankara carrying burgundy wooden boxes containing a custom-engraved .357 Magnum revolver, six live rounds, a signed copy of Erdoğan's biography, a fountain pen, and a personal letter. The discovery of the loaded weapon caused immediate panic among some European delegations. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s staff only realised what was in the black felt-lined chest after landing in Brussels, prompting a frantic response from security teams forced to handle live ammunition on the tarmac.
The security headaches rippled across European capitals. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will decommission her revolver and donate it to a military museum. Luxembourg's Luc Frieden plans to make his "irreversibly unusable" before storing it with other diplomatic gifts. Italy’s government confirmed the weapon was handed to authorised personnel to be logged at Palazzo Chigi, while an aide to Polish President Karol Nawrocki assured local radio that "no one is going to fire it."
However, beyond the protocol chaos, the gifts serve a clear commercial purpose for Turkey's defence sector. The Gümüşay revolvers, originally developed in the 1990s and now produced by state arms maker MKE, were personalised with NATO emblems and each leader's name. Turkey has recently become the world's third-largest small-arms exporter, and the lavish presentation acts as a high-profile marketing vehicle to drive further industry growth.
Leveraging finely crafted firearms to court foreign leaders is a strategy with deep historical roots. In the 1850s, Samuel Colt personally presented engraved revolvers to Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I, explicitly noting Russian interest to secure a bulk order. European leaders have also used the tactic: in 2019, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš presented a gold-plated CZ 75 pistol to US President Donald Trump. Česká zbrojovka, the manufacturer, publicly celebrated the gift, stating "We are proud that our product was chosen as a state gift of the Czech Republic to the US president.”
Reactions among the NATO cohort varied widely. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joked that his gift of maple syrup "kind of undermatched" the handgun. Croatia's Zoran Milanović derided the presents, stating "I shoot from a different weapon." For European security services, however, the incident is a stark reminder of the physical risks attached to such diplomatic traditions, coming just years after a grenade launcher gifted to Poland's police chief exploded in his Warsaw office in 2022.
