President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey handed out gift packs of guns and live bullets to member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) on Thursday, stirring a ruckus among world leaders.

Most leaders, including Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, only discovered the revolver after landing in his home country. 

He said airport police secured the gun.

The gun was accompanied by six live rounds and the Turkish flag to showcase the country’s latest breakthrough in weaponry. 

It also had an export waiver that authorised its cross-border transfer.

The guns carried an inscription that read “Gumusay, the first revolver-type handgun produced in our country.” 

The inscription, engraved with each recipient’s name, was written in both Turkish and English.

“The prime minister was surprised and immediately handed it over to airport police so it could be placed in a secure safe and the matter was handled in accordance with relevant procedures,” an official said. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was gifted 500 rounds of ammunition alongside a gun cleaning kit, Reuters cited a Downing Street source as saying.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she will donate her present to the military museum, a move the leader of Greece said she will replicate.

Canadian leader, Mark Carney, travelled with the revolver but left its ammunition in Ankara. 

He said the gift might be kept at the war museum. He also joked that his gift of maple syrup couldn’t compare with the revolver.

“It struck me that ⁠my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched. I would like to reassure Canadians – they keep guns away from me,” Mr Carney said.

The Small Arms Survey based in Geneva, ranked Turkey as the world’s third-largest exporter of small arms between 2019 and 2024, noting the country pocketed $3 billion in export sales of weapons. 

It added that Turkey trailed behind the U.S. and Italy in exports.