Gun from Erdoğan: Von der Leyen to Donate Gift to Military Museum
Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that Erdoğan had given each leader present a a vintage revolver personalised with their name alongside a box of ammunition and a note waiving Turkish export controls.
Images shared by the office of Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda showed what appeared to be the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a rare six-shooter produced by Turkish arms maker MKE in the 1990s.
It was set in a wooden display box featuring Turkey’s flag and the NATO logo as well as a placard inscribed “Gumusay, the first revolver-type handgun produced in our country” in Turkish and English.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will donate a pistol given by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to a military museum in the Belgian capital once it is brought to Brussels.
European Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson Olof Gill said that von der Leyen expressed her Thanks to the Turkish leader for the present given at the end of the annual NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday.
“The firearm will be securely transported and stored, and once decommissioned, it is the intention of the president to donate the firearm to a military museum,” he said in response to a question asked by Euronews.
The weapon will have to be decommissioned to ensure it cannot fire live rounds.
In her post thanking the Turkish president "for the warm welcome to Ankara," Ursula von der Leyen assured that "The EU and Turkey are strategic partners, and we are committed to strengthening our relationship," but she did not mention the gift.
A European Council official said European Council President António Costa's pistol would be imported in accordance with Belgian law.
The firearm would then be “decommissioned and stored” in line with the security requirements of the General Secretariat of the Council.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's pistol may also end up in a museum.
What the American president decided to do with the gift remains unknown.
The Belgian premier, Bart De Wever, handed his to Brussels’ airport police to be secured 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 an appropriate place “so that it is firstly safe and secondly respected as a gift”.
“Certainly no one will be shooting it,” he added.
The offices of the Dutch and Swedish prime ministers said their revolvers had been take to their respective embassies in Ankara. The Dutch one was due to be disabled while the Swedish one was awaiting import paperwork.
The gun given to Britain’s Keir Starmer came with a cleaning kit and 500 bullets, a Downing Street source said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s revolver was already stored at the seat of government, the Palazzo Chigi, along with other state gifts.
Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, was a little surprised on landing back home from Wednesday’s NATO summit in Turkey to find that he had a handgun and ammunition in his luggage. He handed his to Brussels’ airport police to be secured in a safe.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s spokesperson said all the leaders had been given the same model, engraved with their own names.
The aforementioned British prime minister seems to have had the most problems with the pistol.
Starmer said he left his weapon in Turkey to be decommissioned because it would be illegal to import a live firearm into the UK. It is also illegal to import a live firearm into Belgium without the correct authorisation.
Turkey’s modern handgun industry focuses mainly on semi-automatics, making the Gumusay something of a collector’s curiosity.
World’s third-largest exporter of small arms
Turkish gunmakers have muscled into Europe’s civilian firearms market with inexpensive pistols and shotguns, challenging older Italian and Belgian names long associated with higher-priced sporting and service weapons.
According to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, Turkey was the world’s third-largest exporter of small arms between 2019 and 2024, with exports totalling about $3 billion over the period, behind the United States and Italy.
Less controversial were the pens prepared for the leaders, also engraved with their names. "Charming," commented the British "Guardian" during its live coverage.
Sorces: Euronews, Gazeta Wyborcza, NBC News