London: A Syrian parliamentarian, who represented the northern province of Aleppo, has defected to Turkey, becoming the first member of President Bashar al-Assad's Baath Party, to quit the tyrannical regime.
Ikhlas al-Badawi, a member of the Syrian Government and the Baath Party, which was elected in May, became the first of her kind to flee the nation for oppression on its citizens.
“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,” The Telegraph quoted Badawi, as saying.
Badawi, a mother of six, was 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 minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, the paper said.
The authorities chose Badawi, a Sunni Muslim, to run for Parliament on behalf of the "labourers and peasants" sector, which is a term used for state backed labour and farmers unions, who are guaranteed half the seats in the 250-seat Assembly.
Oppositions and Syrian troops and armour are amassing around the northern city of Aleppo, Syria'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 paper said.
ANI
First Published: Friday, July 27, 2012, 17:30