Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented personalized Gümüsay revolvers .357 Magnum revolvers and live ammunition to NATO heads of state at the conclusion of the Summit in Ankara. On a diplomatic level, this gesture was intended to highlight Turkey’s historical foundations as well as showcase the current capabilities of the Turkish defense industry, which has become the world’s third-largest exporter of small arms.

However, given that these gifts were functional and accompanied by live ammunition, gave rise to regulatory and customs obligations, as well as obligations regarding safe storage for government leaders under their respective national firearms laws.

Furthermore, there is a considerable amount of information, unknown to the general public, regarding this specific gift, such as the mystery surrounding its origin or the fact that it is Turkey’s first domestically developed modern revolver.

READ ALSO: This is the weapon Erdogan gave as a souvenir to NATO leaders (PHOTO)

The first modern revolver developed in Turkey

The Gümüsay is a six-shot, double-action/single-action (DASA) revolver, which was manufactured by MKE (Makine ve Kimya Endüstrisi, in English: Machinery and Chemical Industry). in the 1990s as Turkey’s first domestically developed modern revolver, which has since been discontinued.

It features a receiver and barrel made of high-strength steel alloy to withstand chamber pressures exceeding 35,000 psi, while visually it closely resembles the Colt Python revolvers.

500 rounds instead of 6 for the British Prime Minister

On July 9, 2026, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented NATO leaders with personalized Gümüsay .357 Magnum revolvers following the conclusion of the summit in Ankara.

Each revolver was engraved with the recipient’s name and presented in a wooden case lined with black fabric featuring the Turkish flag, the NATO emblem, and a bilingual plaque recognizing the Gümüsay as Turkey’s first domestically produced revolver.

The basic set included six live rounds and a gun cleaning kit, but the package prepared for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer included 500 rounds!

A gift requiring police protection

The guns that Erdogan gave to European leaders were fully functional, which presented them with a problem. They had to treat them both as real weapons—which would be inspected when the leaders returned to their countries—and as diplomatic mementos.

The result was a state gift that required police escort, customs clearance, secure storage, deactivation, or transfer to a museum, depending on the recipient country.

The historical message behind the gift

The choice of this particular gift also “concealed” a historical message: Gümüsay had little operational significance and no significant export history, but it represented the beginning of the development of the Turkish small arms industry, which recorded exports totaling approximately $3 billion between 2019 and 2024, making it the third-largest exporter worldwide.

What each country will do with the weapon

The revolvers given to the leaders appear to have been prepared as a standardized batch, with the same model, finish, presentation layout, and accessories provided in each package.

The fact that the case contained live ammunition fundamentally changed the way each country had to handle this particular gift, because national authorities generally regulate the firearm, its ammunition, and its import permits through separate procedures.

A non-functional or deactivated revolver could have entered many countries as an exhibit, but a functional .357 Magnum revolver accompanied by cartridges required the immediate intervention of security and customs personnel.

As a result, each country has handled Turkey’s gift differently.

For example, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever handed over his revolver to the police at Brussels Airport immediately upon his return from Ankara, and the weapon was placed in a secure location rather than being transported with his personal belongings.

The revolver belonging to Polish President Karol Nawrocki remained at Warsaw Airport pending customs clearance and a decision on its permanent storage, with Polish officials making it clear that it would not be used and that it would be kept under controlled conditions.

The Dutch government kept the revolver at the Dutch embassy in Ankara and planned to deactivate it before importing it.

Sweden also left its own replica at its embassy in Ankara until the necessary paperwork was completed.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s revolver was transferred to the Palazzo Chigi, where official state gifts are kept under government control.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had planned to donate her own to a military museum.

Greece intended to transfer its revolver to the War Museum in Athens.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s gun was deactivated, seized by Canadian authorities, and separated from the ammunition, which remained in Turkey.

These reactions show that the same gift was handled in at least five different ways: police custody, detention at airport customs, storage at the embassy, deactivation prior to import, and transfer to a museum.

This discrepancy was not political but reflected differing firearms laws, rules governing government gifts, and security procedures.

An interesting detail about the production 

The Gümüsay was developed by MKE in the early 1990s as its first modern revolver, at a time when the company was seeking to expand beyond military rifles, machine guns, and ammunition. One of the most interesting aspects of this revolver is the production arrangement itself.

MKE retained responsibility for manufacturing the barrel and cylinder, as these components require high-strength steel alloy, deep-hole drilling, precision machining, and heat treatment capable of withstanding chamber pressures exceeding 35,000 psi generated by .357 Magnum ammunition.

Küssan A.Ş., for its part, assembled the rest of the frame, the locking mechanism, and the external components prior to final integration.

This division of labor assigned the most demanding work in firearm manufacturing to MKE, which already had experience in military barrels, ammunition production, steel processing, and precision machining.

It was not designed as military equipment

The Gümüsay was not designed to replace any existing military weapon, since, by the early 1990s, nearly every major armed force had already adopted 9×19 mm double-stack semi-automatic pistols as the standard.

Instead, the revolver was aimed at the domestic market—ordinary citizens, sport shooters, and limited police demand— while also demonstrating that the Turkish industry could manufacture a modern magnum revolver without relying on foreign production under license.

There is no database of serial numbers

Potential customers for this particular model, as reported by armyrecognition.com, likely included private individuals, marksmen, collectors, and some police officers. No verified production data has ever been made public. Therefore, there is no confirmed database of the weapons’ serial numbers from which production volume can be estimated.

The rarity of surviving specimens, both on the Turkish civilian market and on the international collectors’ market, suggests that production was carried out in relatively small batches.

Source: Protothema.gr