{"id":27924,"date":"2026-07-09T12:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/27924\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:02:10","slug":"erdogan-gives-every-nato-leader-personalised-gun-as-farewell-gift-at-ankara-summit-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/27924\/","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan gives every Nato leader personalised gun as farewell gift at Ankara summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p>Turkish president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/recep-tayyip-erdogan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a> gifted world leaders personalised revolvers with live ammunition after hosting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/middle-east\/trump-iran-nato-summit-ukraine-zelensky-b3011278.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Nato summit in<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/ankara\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ankara<\/a> this week. <\/p>\n<p>The unusual gift was presented to each head of state and several state officials in attendance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/trump-keir-starmer-mark-rutte-nato-ankara-b3010951.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">from British prime minister <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/keir-starmer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Keir Starmer<\/a>, Canadian leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/mark-carney\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Carney<\/a> to European Commission president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/ursula-von-der-leyen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ursula von der Leyen<\/a> and European Council president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/antonio-costa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Antonio Costa<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Accompanied by bullets and a cleaning kit, the guns were engraved with the names of each recipient. <\/p>\n<p>Sir Keir is expected to have his firearm decommissioned before bringing it back to the UK and it remains with officials in Turkey at present, according to the BBC. Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten said that he would be doing the same. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2284662380...jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/>(AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Decommissioning a firearm means that the gun will no longer be capable of firing live ammunition. <\/p>\n<p>The present also came with a certificate waiving export control to allow the politicians to leave the country with them. <\/p>\n<p>It is likely to represent the country\u2019s weapons industry as well as the discussions held at the summit focused on bolstering the alliance\u2019s defences. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783598528_363_2284667857...jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/>(Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a European Council official said Costa\u2019s security team took the weapon for checks. \u201cWe will follow the Belgian procedures to bring it to Belgium and then we will store it in line with the security requirements imposed by the General Secretariat of the Council,\u201d they said, according to Politico. <\/p>\n<p>Attendees were also served Turkish tea and a variety of dishes from the country\u2019s national cuisine including stone-baked pide with Trabzon butter and Hizan honey, sea bass, slow-cooked beef ribs accompanied by firik pilaf and a traditional dessert of S\u00fctl\u00fc Nuriye with Mara\u015f ice cream and pistachio foam according to Hurriyet Daily News. <\/p>\n<p>Discussions at the summit centred on ramping up the alliance\u2019s defence and military spending amid the background of the ongoing war in Ukraine and Iran. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783598530_95_2285260088...jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev and President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrive ahead a family photo during the NATO summit on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from NATO's 32 countries, plus NATO allies like Ukraine, gathered in the Turkish capital to discuss a range of issues involving spending targets, defence industrial production, and support for Ukraine, among other topics\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/>NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev and President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrive ahead a family photo during the NATO summit on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from NATO&#8217;s 32 countries, plus NATO allies like Ukraine, gathered in the Turkish capital to discuss a range of issues involving spending targets, defence industrial production, and support for Ukraine, among other topics (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Defence companies from Nato member states are reported to have agreed to more than $50bn in defence procurement and industrial agreements as allies sought to demonstrate their commitment to bolstering military spending.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting has also been overshadowed by President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/donald-trump\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s renewed interest in taking over Greenland, prompting Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen to vow to defend \u201cevery inch\u201d of it.<\/p>\n<p>After repeated pleas by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for US-made interceptors, Trump appeared to confirm he would provide Ukraine with a license and said that further talks on anti-ballistic missiles would ensue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That\u2019s pretty cool. This way, you can\u2019t complain that we\u2019re not giving them enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[37,5671,13517,5447,6278,5394,299,68,5393,1700,1802,281,4153,5397,162,1904,9071,11124,58,13346,13925,5395],"class_list":["post-27924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ankara","tag-ankara","tag-ankara-turkey","tag-arrival","tag-asia","tag-bulgaria","tag-color-image","tag-diplomacy","tag-family","tag-horizontal","tag-mark-rutte","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-nato-summit","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-president-of-turkey","tag-prime-minister","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-rumen-radev","tag-secretary-general","tag-turkiye-country"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/turkiye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}