A Pistol for Every Leader: Erdoğan’s Gift to NATO Leaders That Keir Starmer Could Not Accept
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented an unconventional gift to the heads of state and government attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit hosted in Ankara: a pistol engraved with each leader’s name, accompanied by a box of live ammunition.
Speaking to British journalists during his return flight from Ankara, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer revealed that Erdoğan had presented every leader with a personalized pistol bearing their name, together with ammunition. He explained that he was forced to leave his gift behind in Turkey because bringing it into the United Kingdom would have violated British law.
Starmer added that the Turkish president had attached a personal note to each pistol exempting its recipient from Turkey’s export restrictions. However, this exemption was insufficient to overcome the United Kingdom’s legal restrictions governing the importation and private possession of handguns.
It remains unclear whether other NATO leaders encountered similar difficulties when attempting to bring the gifts back to their respective countries.
Strict British Firearms Restrictions
Starmer’s situation stems from the United Kingdom’s firearms legislation, which has imposed stringent restrictions on the importation and private ownership of handguns since the 1996 Dunblane massacre, after which an almost complete ban on this category of firearms was introduced.
As a result of these legal restrictions, the pistol intended for the British Prime Minister remained in Ankara and is expected to be decommissioned, despite the exemption note issued by President Erdoğan waiving Turkey’s export controls.
On the Sidelines of the Summit
The gifts were presented on the sidelines of the 36th NATO Summit, hosted by Ankara on 7 and 8 July. It was the first NATO summit held in Turkey since the Istanbul Summit in 2004.
The summit featured discussions focused on defense spending, support for Ukraine, and defense relations between Turkey and the United States, including the issue of the F-35 fighter aircraft program.
Keir Starmer described the summit as “productive,” stating that the Alliance had achieved its objective of preserving “unity among its members.” The final communiqué reaffirmed the member states’ commitment to the principle of collective defense enshrined in Article 5 of the NATO Treaty and reiterated the Alliance’s continued support for Ukraine.
The summit also saw US President Donald Trump criticize several of Washington’s European allies, while Starmer stated that his relationship with Trump “has always been good.”
