A gun gifted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda at NATO summit in Ankara. Picture taken in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 9, 2026. [Lithuanian President's Office/Handout via Reuters]
Belgium’s prime minister was a little surprised on landing back home from Wednesday’s NATO summit in Turkey to find that he had a handgun and ammunition in his luggage.
After NATO leaders gathered for Wednesday’s fractious summit in Ankara, their host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, handed each an unusual parting gift: a vintage revolver, along with live ammunition indicating it was not just for show. Erdogan wanted to showcase Turkey’s defence industry, which has become a key export and foreign policy tool.
Images shared by the office of Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda showed what appeared to be the Gumusay .357 Magnum, a rare six-shooter produced by Turkish arms maker MKE in the 1990s.
It was set in a wooden display box featuring Turkey’s flag and the NATO logo as well as a placard inscribed “Gumusay, the first revolver-type handgun produced in our country” in Turkish and English.
