Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented each leader attending the NATO summit in Ankara with a loaded revolver engraved with the recipient's name, accompanied by a box of ammunition and a letter waiving Turkish export restrictions on the weapons.
Neither British Prime Minister Keir Starmer nor German Chancellor Friedrich Merz took the firearms home. Starmer left his revolver in Turkey because importing it into Britain would violate domestic law. Merz's weapon was handed over to the German embassy to be properly imported and catalogued in the government's official gifts collection, a spokesman said.
The unusual diplomatic gesture drew attention for its legal complications, as the live ammunition and firearms crossed boundaries that most Western nations tightly regulate.