Erdogan Surprises NATO Leaders With Revolver Gifts, Sparking a Protocol and Legal Dilemma at Summit
France 24—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented each NATO leader with a revolver as an unusual gift at the alliance's summit, creating immediate puzzlement about how to respond to the unconventional gesture. Newly released footage from the summit showed the moment the firearms were presented, with leaders visibly uncertain how to react. The gift raised immediate legal questions about whether heads of state and their delegations could legally transport firearms across international borders. The move was widely seen as characteristically attention-grabbing from Erdogan, who has used the NATO stage to assert Turkey's independent profile within the alliance.
- France 24 — Erdogan's revolver gifts to NATO leaders caught summit attendees off guard.
- Kathimerini English (Greece) — The revolver gifts created a diplomatic conundrum for NATO leaders unsure how to transport firearms across borders.
- HuffPost — Politics — Erdogan's Eyebrow
- Euronews — Newly released summit footage shows the moment Erdogan handed out the revolvers to fellow leaders.
- HuffPost — Erdogan's Eyebrow