Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan handed out personalized revolvers, complete with six rounds of ammunition and each engraved with the recipient's name, to NATO leaders at the close of this week's summit in Ankara, an unusual parting gift that only came to light after Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever discovered his had traveled home with him.
De Wever's office confirmed he did not open the gift package until after landing at Melsbroek military airport in Belgium, at which point he and his entourage discovered the engraved revolver and its ammunition inside. The weapon was immediately handed over to airport police, who placed it in a weapons safe, with no decision yet made on what will ultimately happen to it.
De Wever was not alone. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his counterparts from the Netherlands and Germany received the same gift but discovered its contents while still in Turkey, and chose to leave their revolvers behind at their countries' embassies rather than attempt to bring them home, since importing firearms would be illegal. Erdogan reportedly included a note with the gifts stating they were exempt from export controls, though that exemption did not resolve the legal complications facing leaders whose national laws bar bringing firearms into the country.
According to the BBC, the revolver given to Starmer remained in Turkey in the custody of British authorities present there and will eventually be decommissioned to render it unusable with live ammunition.
The gesture came as NATO leaders wrapped up a summit focused on reaffirming the alliance's mutual defense commitments under Article 5, with Starmer separately telling reporters the summit had been productive and that the alliance had achieved its central goal of unity.
