NATO Leaders Deal Awkwardly With Working Guns Gifted by Erdogan at Summit

Most NATO countries are attempting to boost weapons purchases but the gift of a handgun and ammunition caused some awkward moments for the leaders of several countries with strict gun control laws.As host of this week’s annual NATO summit, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey handed out the vintage handguns and ammunition as a parting gift to the alliance’s leaders. Each gun came in a wooden display box featuring Turkey’s flag and the NATO logo, tucked inside of a nondescript shopping bag. At least a few world leaders reportedly were unaware that they were carrying guns when they arrived home.The Belgian premier, Bart De Wever, found the gun and ammunition upon landing at Brussels, according to reports. Mr. De Wever turned over the weapon to airport police.President Zoran Milanović of Croatia said he didn’t know he had been gifted a gun until after he returned home. The weapon is expected to be given to a police museum. Other leaders also indicated that they were going to donate the weapons to museums.The office of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, told reporters that each of the leaders had been given the same model of handgun with his or her name engraved on the barrel. A card inside each box indicated the pistol was a Gumusay, the first revolver-type handgun produced in Turkey. The box also contained a note saying the guns were exempted from export controls in Turkey.“An unusual gift from President @RTErdogan at the NATO Summit: a Magnum revolver with ammunition, engraved with my name…,” the Hungarian prime minister, Péter Magyar, said in an X post.The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, told reporters he left his gun behind to be disabled because it would be illegal to bring it into his home country. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, also left his gun behind.“It struck me that my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched,” Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada remarked. He joked with reporters that “I would like to reassure Canadians, they keep guns away from me.”The Dutch prime minister sent his revolver to his nation’s embassy at Ankara to be disabled.The gun given to Poland’s president, Karol Nawrocki, received customs clearance at Warsaw Airport, where it received careful handling in light of a previous incident involving Poland’s former police commander. In 2022, an anti-tank grenade launcher that had been gifted to Jaroslaw Szymczyk by Ukraine exploded in his office as he was moving it. It blasted a hole in the floor at the police headquarters and caused extensive damage to the office below.The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether President Trump received one of the guns.

NATO Leaders Deal Awkwardly With Working Guns Gifted by Erdogan at Summit

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