Did Turkey Really Declare PM Modi as the Greatest Leader and Issued a Postal Stamp in his Honour?

Turkey issued a postage stamp of Indian PM Narendra Modi and termed him as the greatest world leader according to a viral message. The message reads: Turkey has issued a postage stamp of Narendra Modi, declaring PM Modi as the greatest leader of the world, and every Indian should feel proud about this.

A message doing the rounds on social media claims that Turkey has issued postage stamp of Narendra Modi for being world’s greatest leader.
A message doing the rounds on social media claims that Turkey has issued a postage stamp of Narendra Modi for being the world’s greatest leader.

Several social media users have shared the image with a similar narrative on WhatsApp and Twitter. The image has been viral since 2015.

The image is viral on Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter.
The image is viral on Whatsapp, Facebook, and Twitter.

PM Modi – World’s Greatest Leader: True or False

The stamp is real and dates back to G2O Antalya Summit held on 15 November 2015 in Turkey. But it was not issued for Modi alone. The stamp was issued by The Turkish Post (PTT) as a part of the commemorative series during the summit. The official website of the 2015 G20 Summit reads,

“The Turkish Post (PTT) has issued a commemorative G20 Antalya Summit stamp and a first-day envelope collection on the occasion of the G20 Antalya Summit. These stamps and envelopes have been circulated to the public on the first day of the G20 Antalya Summit, 15 November 2015.

During the summit, PTT established a post office in the International Media Center and provided visitors with an opportunity to send G20 postcards all over the world.

A separate special edition stamp project which incorporates all the G20 Leaders, has also been prepared by PTT. These stamps of all leaders have been compiled together to celebrate the spirit of the summit. Each stamp has a picture of a leader along with the flag of his/her country.

Together with the leaders’ personalized stamps, this corporate stamp sheet was presented to the leaders by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the last session of the summit.

The number of printed personalized stamps of the leaders was limited to the number of leaders attending the summit.”

The image shows that similar postage stamps were issued for all the G20 leaders.