At last week’s NATO summit in Ankara, Erdoğan handed each attending leader a parting gift consisting of a vintage-style revolver and live ammunition, as images released by officials and later reporting showed. Multiple outlets and sources described the guns as Turkish-made and displayed in wooden boxes marked with the Turkish flag and NATO logo.
Reuters, via NBC News, reported that the model appeared to be the Gumusay .357 Magnum, described on a placard as “the first revolver-type handgun produced in our country,” and that leaders’ revolvers were engraved with their names. Because they included live ammunition, some recipients took steps to secure or transfer the weapons—for example, Belgium’s prime minister reportedly handed his to airport police, while other governments stored theirs at official premises or embassies while customs paperwork was handled.
Middle East Eye reported that Erdoğan’s revolver gift to Trump was the only one described as including gold plating, with the grip reported to be gold-plated, while the rest of the gun was said to match the same Gumusay model. The White House did not respond to questions from the outlet about the gift.
The episode also drew attention to the logistics of gifts and federal rules in the United States, with reporting noting that foreign gifts above a certain value can become government property unless the recipient reimburses the assessed value.
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