Overview
- President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented each attending leader with a personalised Sarsilmaz SR-38 revolver packaged with six rounds and a signed export-exemption note at the NATO summit in Ankara earlier this week.
- Leaders responded differently under national rules: Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz and Rob Jetten left their pistols in Turkey, Belgium’s Bart De Wever handed his to police, Canada’s Mark Carney reportedly kept the gun but left the ammunition, and some others transported the weapons under procedures.
- The Italian government says Giorgia Meloni’s pistol was taken in charge in Ankara by authorised personnel, brought to Rome and registered and protocolled at Palazzo Chigi according to standard gift procedures.
- European Commission officials confirmed Ursula von der Leyen’s revolver will be secured and donated to a military museum, a choice that reflects how different institutions are resolving transport, custody and safety concerns tied to working firearms.
- Opposition figures have demanded transparency and questioned the gesture’s appropriateness as a public-relations showcase for Turkey’s arms industry, and the episode could prompt parliamentary checks and clearer protocols for state gifts that are functioning weapons.