I didn't say CHP was atheist: MHP spokesman

Yusuf Halaço?lu, a spokesman for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the Turkish Parliament, has said that he never said the social democratic Republican People?s Party (CHP) was ?irreligious and non-believing? during a telephone interview with the Hürriyet Daily News on July 8.

?What I actually said was if the MHP would have voted for Deniz Baykal, the CHP candidate for parliamentary speaker,? Halaço?lu said, ?the ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP] would have denounced us, the MHP, as voting for the ?irreligious, and atheist party,? as AKP officials have done so in the past.?

Halaço?lu has also said that he ?did not think the CHP was irreligious or atheist? as well, since ?it was not up to MHP or myself but only up to God to measure whether anyone is a true believer.?

The issue had come up during a TV debate when Halaço?lu was explaining why the MHP did not vote for the CHP candidate in order to block the election of the AKP candidate, ?smet Y?lmaz, who was elected as the speaker during the last round of voting.

The MHP spokesman also explained the real reason behind their objection to Baykal?s candidacy was Baykal?s private conversation with President Tayyip Erdo?an right after the June 7 elections, which was not transparent to the MHP or the public. ?Baykal did this before in 2003 when he was the head of the CHP,? Halaço?lu told HDN. ?We are not sure they speculated about having a two-party system in Turkey,? revealing MHP concerns that there might have been a plot against the MHP. ?Actually, the main reason why we nominated Ekmeleddin ?hsano?lu as our candidate was to show that we would not vote for Baykal,? Halaço?lu said. ?The CHP could have voted for ?hsano?lu, since they had supported him as a presidential...