On the first anniversary of the Assad regime’s arrest of Gabriel Koriya, the chief of the Political Bureau of the Democratic Assyrian Organization, the Syrian Coalition’s President Hadi Al-Bahra said that the arbitrary detention of Koriya with other prisoners of conscience represents a further proof of the Assad regime criminal behavior against the Syrian people. “It also exposes the fallacy of Assad’s claims of accepting a negotiated peaceful settlement to the conflict in Syria. We strongly condemn the arrest peaceful political activists and renew our solidarity with the struggle of our comrades in the Democratic Assyrian Organization which gave a model of adherence to the unity of the Syrian people and their legitimate demands,” Bahra said. The Syrian Coalition slammed earlier the “Assad regime’s arrest of members of the Democratic Assyrian Organization, the leading Christian opposition party in Syria. “It has become clear that such criminal policies pursued by the Assad regime against civilian organizations and communities lays bare Assad’s claims about protection of minorities. In fact, the active participation of the Assyrian Organization in the Syrian Revolution since its early days and the adoption of its goals has refuted the regime’s claims that the uprising is dominated by Islamist hardliners. The Assad regime has been trying to intimidate Syria’s Assyrians and Christians in general and cut them off from the rest of the components of the Syrian society. The Assad regime also wants to give the impression that the fate of these components depends on its survival in power.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)
