Carney says revolvers gifted to NATO leaders by Turkish president were unexpected

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said the personalized revolver and ammunition gifted to him by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the conclusion of the NATO summit in Ankara was not something he expected.

Erdogan gave each visiting NATO leader a handgun with their name engraved on it as a gift.

Carney told reporters Thursday that he never saw the gun, joking that he could reassure Canadians that “they keep guns away from me.”

“It’s not what I expected,” Carney said of the gift. “It struck me that my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched.”

The prime minister gifted Erdogan maple syrup this week while in Turkey.

Carney said the revolver is with the RCMP and that it’s been decommissioned so it no longer fires as it’s not a legal firearm in Canada.

“I certainly don’t have a licence for it,” he said.

Global Affairs Canada said the ammunition was left in Turkey.

Carney said he thought the revolver could live somewhere like the Canadian War Museum.

“It’s interesting and it relates to NATO and the bigger picture of that,” he said. “We’re going to find the best home for it.”

Any gift received by a politician worth more than $200 must be publicly declared, and any gift worth more than $1,000 must be forfeited to the Crown under Canada’s conflict of interest rules.

A handout photo from the office of Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda shows a Gumusay .357 Revolver with his name engraved on the barrel, the Turkish crescent moon and star on the frame and a small plaque on the grip that says “Ankara Summit.”

A placard in the gift box says this was the first type of revolver manufactured in Turkey in the 1990s and that the commemorative firearms were made by Turkish firm MKE.

A spokesperson from Nauseda’s office said that his gifted revolver is planned to be exhibited in the Presidential Palace, like many other gifts given to the head of state.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on social media Thursday that the gift was “unusual.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2026.

David Baxter and Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press