Erdogan Surprised NATO Summit Participants: Alliance Leaders Were Gifted Personalized Pistols 0 121

After the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented the heads of state and government of the alliance countries with unusual commemorative gifts — pistols engraved with the recipients' names and a box of ammunition.

As British Prime Minister Keir Starmer explained, all summit participants received the same gifts. They differed only in personal engraving.

It was the British Prime Minister who first publicly mentioned this detail after the meeting, speaking to journalists on his way home.

For some delegations, receiving such a gift required additional procedures. In Germany, it was reported that the pistol presented to Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz was handed over to the German embassy. There, it will be processed according to the current import regulations and entered into the official registry of state gifts.

In the case of the United Kingdom, the situation was different. Although the Turkish side lifted export restrictions, Keir Starmer decided not to export the weapon from the country. According to him, importing such a gift would contradict strict British firearms legislation, so the pistol remained in Turkey, where it is to be rendered unusable.

Such gifts for participants of international summits are rare, and their further fate is usually determined by the legislation of each country. In some states, they become part of state collections, while in others, they require special processing or cannot be imported at all.

The Turkish president's administration has not yet commented on the reports of the weapon's presentation and has not responded to journalists' inquiries.

Thus, Erdogan's unusual diplomatic gesture has become one of the most discussed details of the recent NATO summit, although there have been no official comments from the Turkish authorities so far.