Following the tense summit of NATO leaders in Ankara, Turkish President and host of the meeting, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sent the leaders off with a rather unusual farewell gift.
The president gave the attendees (among whom were the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, António Costa) custom-made revolvers accompanied by real ammunition, a detail that made it clear that the firearms delivered did not have a merely decorative function.
This unique diplomatic gift reflects Erdogan’s broader push and strategy to publicly showcase Turkey’s national defense industry, in a meeting also marked by the announcement of new contracts with the sector worth more than $50 billion.
In recent years, the country has increasingly used this sector as a key tool for both commercial export and the development of its foreign policy.
The characteristics of the model were revealed through images shared by the office of the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nauseda.
The video shows what appears to be a Gümüşay.357 Magnum, a rare six-round revolver produced by Turkish arms manufacturer MKE (Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation) in the 1990s and currently no longer in production.
Gümüşay, the first revolver-type pistol produced in our country
The presentation of the controversial gift was meticulously detailed for the occasion: The revolvers came embedded inside a wooden display box, personalized with the name of each leader engraved on the barrel, accompanied by six bullets and a permit authorizing their export.
In addition, the case had a plate engraved with the phrase “Gümüşay, the first revolver-type pistol produced in our country”, written in both Turkish and English.
Despite the deployment, not all leaders of the Atlantic Alliance immediately realized the exact nature of the package:
Erdogan’s gift forced European delegations to improvise emergency solutions due to strict firearms regulations in each country.
While the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, the Dutch Prime Minister, Rob Jetten, and the Prime Minister of Sweden flatly refused to fly with the revolver and chose to leave it on Turkish soil, other leaders learned of the contents of the package once they had taken off; This was the case of the Belgian Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, who was greatly surprised when he landed in Brussels and discovered that the box contained a real weapon with live ammunition, which led him to immediately hand it over to the airport police so that it would be kept in a safe.
In a similar line of security, Ursula von der Leyen’s team confirmed that her revolver will be stored safely until it is deactivated and donated to a military museum, while António Costa is following the regulatory procedures to remove it from service and store it under the security regulations of the General Secretariat of the Council.
Pedro Sánchez has also received it
From Moncloa they confirm to Onda Cero that the President of the Government has also received this present from Erdogan, although they do not specify what Sánchez has done with it.
According to experts consulted by La Razón, it is a “historical” weapon due to the area in which the donation occurred and as such it has to be regularized in the corresponding registry of the Civil Guard Weapons Inspection.
