Syrian Legislator Defects to Turkey
A Syrian parliamentarian representing the northern province of Aleppo said she has defected to Turkey, becoming the first member of the rubberstamp assembly elected in May and dominated by President Bashar Al Assad’s Baath Party to defect.
“I have crossed to Turkey and defected from this tyrannical regime … because of the repression and savage torture against a nation demanding the minimum of rights,” Ikhlas Al Badawi told Sky News Arabia.
Opposition sources Syrian troops and armour are amassing around the northern city of Aleppo, Syrian’s main commercial and industrial hub, to crush armed resistance to Assad that has been gathering momentum following a military crackdown on street demonstrations against his rule.
The authorities chose Badawi, to run for parliament on behalf of the “labourers and peasants” sector, a term for state backed labour and farmers unions who are guaranteed half the seats in the 250 seat assembly.
Badawi, a mother of six, was also a member of the Baath Party, which took power in 1963 military coup that destroyed the country’s democratic institutions in favour of a Soviet style political system dominated by Assad’s Alawite sect.