The local agency broadcasted the pictures of the vehicle found in Raqqa which has been recaptured from the Islamic State (IS). The report claims the logo appearing on the vehicle is the official logo of Turkey’s Konya municipality, a central Anatolian city governed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Turkey’s Cumhuriyet daily talked to the representatives from the Konya Metropolitan Municipality regarding the abandoned vehicle’s municipal logo with an inscription reading, "for official use only".
KONYA MUNICIPALITY: IT MAY BE ONE OF OUR OLD VEHICLES
"The logo on the vehicle's door is a logo which we used nearly 15 years ago. They are very old vehicles, 20-30-year-old. We have used a different logo since 2004. It may be one of our old junk vehicles that were sold by tender. We will make an official statement," said the authorities from the municipality.
Then the official statement came from the Konya Metropolitan Municipality. "Such intentional news reports are part of the attempts to defame our country. The allegations showing our country and city linked to illegal organizations are definitely false. The vehicle appearing with photographs on social media and websites is not recorded in our inventory. The logo on the vehicle is not an official logo of our municipality."
Turkey’s seventh most populated city where hosts a military base also used by NATO, Konya is known for its religious oriented lifestyle in the country. AKP party receives around 65% of the votes in the city which has been used by Islamic municipalities for a long time.
The province of Konya came to the fore during a football match played between Turkey and Iceland in October 2015 as the local fans booed the minutes' silence for the victims of the IS bomb attack that killed over a hundred people in Ankara on October 10, 2015.
