Just whose idea was Swiss minaret ban anyhow?

The architect of the controversial Swiss referendum that resulted in a ban on the construction of minarets has a Turkish heritage, daily Milliyet reported on Wednesday.

Born in the Aegean province of İzmir to a Turkish father and a Swiss mother, Soli Pardo’s family moved to Switzerland when he was 5 years old, the daily said.

Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Nov. 29, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population. The referendum by the nationalist Swiss People's Party, or SVP, labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation.

Pardo also said minarets are used as symbols in Europe, but added: “I do not have any reactions against Muslims, and I do not accept that there is Islamaphobia in Switzerland.”

Pardo, who was the leader of the Geneva Canton for the SVP, but resigned from his post after the October election defeat, said his father was a small-scale industrialist and passed away in 1976 when Pardo was 21. He said he visits Turkey frequently and defined himself as a “friend of the Turks.”

Regarding the referendum, he said: “We do not believe that the minarets are linked to worship because no calls to prayer are made from the minarets. We are not against building mosques but against 5- to 6-meter-tall minarets.”

Daily Milliyet’s report comes as a change of leadership took place in the SVP’s Geneva headquarters. Eric Leyvraz was elected by the general council to succeed Pardo as the president of Geneva Canton for the SVP, the SVP-Geneva said in a statement late on Tuesday. The populist party entered the elections with an aggressive campaign but had lost two seats in the Parliament. A statement released by the party headquarters said that the party had felt the need to modernize.

The referendum on minarets was approved 57.5 to 42.5 percent by some 2.67 million voters. Only four of the 26 cantons or states opposed the initiative, granting the double approval that makes it part of the Swiss constitution.

Muslims comprise about 6 percent of Switzerland's 7.5 million people. More than 100,000 Turks are living in the country. The Turkish foreign minister said Dec. 1 that the ban has violated basic human rights and freedoms, adding that it has caused disappointment and is unfortunate.