Finding a gun in your suitcase on your way back from the NATO summit and discovering that it was a gift, an unusual souvenir, from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, host of the two-day NATO summit in Ankara.

It happened to Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, and one wonders why the detail escaped his staff. The weapon was nevertheless given to all the leaders, and it took them by surprise.

At the end of days of hectic work, the staff were forced to hold quick protocol consultations to decide what to do with the unusual gift. So much so that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer deemed it appropriate to immediately inform, on the flight back to London, that he and other leaders—German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten—had decided to leave the weapon in Turkey . Others, however, took it on board and managed it according to their own rules, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

According to the most reliable accounts, Erdogan's purpose for the gift was a clear reference to the Turkish defense industry and its centrality to the country. According to some released images, the revolver appears to be modeled after a Gumusay .357 Magnum, a rare six-shot pistol produced by the Turkish arms company MKE in the 1990s.

The revolver, carefully personalized with the names of the leaders, was kept in a black-lined red box along with six bullets and a dedication . It was supplied with a document exempting it from export restrictions.

The teams of the various delegations were inevitably alarmed, as reported by the Belgian Prime Minister's team, who only realized the nature of the gift once he landed in his homeland: "The Prime Minister was surprised and immediately handed it over to the airport police to be kept in a safe, and it was handled according to established procedures." De Wever's team also handled the gifts to Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, who landed at the same airport. Von der Leyen "expressed her gratitude" to Erdogan for the gift, her spokesperson said, adding however that the weapon would be decommissioned and donated to a military museum. .