Turmoil in Syria forces legislator to defect to Turkey

A female Syrian parliamentarian representing the northern province of Aleppo has become the first member of the legislative body elected in May under President Bashar Assad’s regime to defect to Turkey.

Ikhlas al-Badawi said she was defecting due to the ‘repression and savage torture’ being committed against a nation not expecting any more than the minimum of rights.

The northern city of Aleppo is being surrounded by government troops and armoured divisions in an attempt to defeat armed rebels rising against Assad according to Opposition sources.

Sunni Muslim Badawi, a mother of six, was chosen by the authorities to represent labourers and peasants in parliament in a sector which was to include state-backed labour and farmers’ unions.

These unions were guaranteed half of the seats within the 250 seat legislature.

The legislator was also previously a member of the Baath Party which destroyed the democratic institutions in Syria to implement a Soviet-style political system which was ruled by Assad’s minority Alawite sect.

Badawi follows suit after Nawaf al-Fares, Syria’s ambassador to Iraq and a former Baath Party chief, defected to Qatar two weeks before following Manaf Tlas, a brigadier general and member of Assad’s inner circle, who fled in early July.