Syrian Coalition Calls on Defected Army Officers to Join Their Comrades in the Battle against the Assad Regime

Hadi Al Bahra, president of the Syrian Coalition, calls on the defected army officers to join their comrades in the battle against the Assad regime during a meeting in the officers’ camp near the Syrian-Turkish borders. Bahra said that after Hafez al-Assad purged the army of its finest experienced officers, all what remained are a bunch of corrupt profiteers whose primary concern is self-enrichment and cracking down on any possible dissent. The surviving officers were assigned to trivial positions, such as the Committee for the Defense of Damascus, thus weakling the army even more and transforming it to a criminal junta. With the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution Assad has acquiesced the leadership of the army to foreign powers, most notably the Iranians officers who are disguised as military experts. Moreover, the Syrian Arab Army is now being commanded by foreign sectarian militias recruited by Iran to serve its interests in the region. We are confident that the Syrian Arab Army still contains thousands who are eager to join the revolution and be incorporated into a national army free of criminals and profiteers who has turned recruits into laborers to serve in the farms and palaces.” Furthermore, Bahra points out that “it’s vital at this stage of the revolution that officers, non-commissioned officers and recruits who defected from the Syrian army play the leading role in restructuring and rehabilitating the Syrian army and transform it to a national army capable of absorbing all military forces in order to restore our national sovereignty that Assad gave up for the sake of clinging to power. The restructuring of the army should be done without or distinction or marginalization of its members, while the military expertise will be the basis on which this process will be carried out. We have a responsibility to restore our national army which Assad has transformed into a sectarian militia backed by foreign mercenaries who are backing Assad in his genocidal campaign against the Syrian people. Had the international community moved early to stop Assad’s atrocities, the Syrian people would have gained their freedom and dignity without having to sacrifices all those lives and the region would have been spared the surge of extremist groups.” Bahra concluded his remarks by paying homage to founder of the Free Syrian Army, lieutenant colonel Hussein Harmoush. “He will remain alive in our hearts, alongside other fallen heroes like Abu Furat and others who sacrificed their lives defending the Syrian civilians. We are certain that thousands of officers and recruits are waiting for the right moment to join the Free Syrian Army and pledge loyalty to the Syrian people, and to protect the borders of the homeland, freedom and the dignity of the citizen and the liberation of the occupied territories.“ (Source: Syrian Coalition)