Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s parting gift to the NATO leaders he hosted this week was a revolver, and an accidental expose of squeamish European attitudes to firearms.
The Turkish-made Gumusay .357 Magnums were engraved with each of the leaders’ names. They came with six live rounds and an export waiver. But import was another matter, with several recipients forced to leave their new weapons behind.
The awkward entanglement between the host’s munificence and his guests’ strict gun controls was a fitting coda to a summit dominated by the tough guys. Although NATO’s European members assembled a smorgasbord of defense deals to impress Donald Trump and secure his long-term commitment to the alliance, the US president’s highest praise was reserved for Turkey’s 23-year ruler.
“Perhaps he thought European leaders needed shooting practice,” mused Finland’s former president Sauli Niinisto in an interview, of Erdogan’s party favors.
The gifts caught several leaders off guard on their trips home from the Turkish capital, leading to an apparent case of unintentional weapons smuggling. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever didn’t immediately look inside the box and his delegation was surprised on landing to learn they were carrying a lethal weapon, the newspaper De Morgen reported.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer had to leave his revolver in Ankara to be decommissioned. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal — a reservist with the national guard — also left his behind, telling local media otherwise he’d need a gun license.
Another option would be giving the weapon to a museum, he said, like European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen vowed to do.
Czech President Petr Pavel seemed not to run into any issues: “Since I hold a firearms license, there shouldn’t be any problem with it,” he told reporters during his visit to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney regretted being outdone. “It struck me that my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched,” he said.
–With assistance from Zosia Wanat, Andrea Palasciano, Milda Seputyte, Michal Kubala, Jasmina Kuzmanovic, Donato Paolo Mancini, Beril Akman, Ellen Milligan and Kirsi Heikel.
This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.