Ursula von der Leyen \u2018thanked\u2019 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan for giving her a revolver \u2014 as he did with all the other leaders \u2014 at the end of the NATO summit in Ankara. Not an antique revolver that might recall the struggle for independence, still a weapon, an inherently troubling object, but one that may carry centuries of history and thus becomes something that symbolises a story.<\/p>\n
No, it\u2019s a Turkish-made pistol from the 1990s, a Gumusay 357 Magnum (complete with bullets, so ready for use), very similar to the one Inspector Callaghan uses in the second film of the series about the tough cop played by Clint Eastwood, a “tough guy with a heart of gold.” In short, a very aggressive, heavy\u2011caliber revolver \u2014 designed to kill by inflicting massive damage on the victim\u2019s body, not conceived for any theoretical “self\u2011defence” purpose.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the European Commission \u2014 not a particularly sharp one \u2014 explained that von der Leyen felt the need to express her thanks for receiving such an object. Sometimes it\u2019s better to say nothing. But not everyone is born to be a political spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Now, for heaven\u2019s sake, we\u2019re talking about a gun \u2014 specifically a very aggressive one. Leaving aside the sheer bad taste of the item itself as a gift, and the fact that \u2013 let\u2019s not be hypocritical \u2013 NATO was meeting to discuss governments\u2019 acquisition of weapons far more lethal than a revolver, but honestly \u2014 the president of the European Commission, who is supposed to be a champion of peace, who should abhor violence \u2014 can she really “be grateful” to someone (and not just anyone: someone widely seen as coarse, and whose system of government borders on dictatorship) for giving her an object designed to tear apart a victim\u2019s body?<\/p>\n
From what I\u2019ve been able to find, that \u2018brilliant\u2019 Commission spokesperson Olof Gill is the only one who expressed the “recipient\u2019s” view on the gift received. Had he even a bit of professional instinct \u2014 just a little \u2014 he would have kept quiet, or at least avoided mentioning the word “gratitude,” as the other spokespersons did. The story came to light because the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, told journalists about the incident on the flight back to London, without mentioning any thanks but emphasising that he had left the gun there in Turkey, at the embassy \u2013 as, it later transpired, other leaders had also done. An explicit gesture of dissent. Giorgia Meloni, without comment, took it to Rome without even touching it, entrusting it to her security detail before consigning it to the “gift collection” at Palazzo Chigi, where it will probably remain gathering dust, as such a gift deserves. <\/p>\n
Not Von der Leyen, though \u2013 she liked the gift; she liked it so much that she\u2019s going to donate it to a military museum in Belgium (perhaps the War Museum, which is just a few metres from her office, so she can pop in from time to time to admire the object on which her name is engraved). In other words, according to the President of the European Commission \u2013 who, in theory, is a champion of world peace \u2013 a Turkish revolver from the 1990s is so important an artefact that it deserves a place in a museum. Perhaps because it has gained value simply by having been given to her personally. <\/p>\n
In short, Erdo\u011fan is the unpleasant \u2013 indeed, detestable \u2013 man that he is, but NATO leaders have to deal with him. That does not, however, mean we should sympathise with him or appease him, particularly when he tramples on the values of the European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ursula von der Leyen \u2018thanked\u2019 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan for giving her a revolver \u2014 as he did with all the other leaders \u2014 at the end of the NATO summit in Ankara. Not an antique revolver that might recall the struggle for independence, still a weapon, an inherently troubling object, but one that may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":459615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25761],"tags":[26483,34817,25921],"class_list":["post-459663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-directors-point-of-view","tag-pistola","tag-von-der-leyen-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459664,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459663\/revisions\/459664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}