LONDON: Officers who deserted the Syrian army under the regime of the former president, Bashar Assad, in protest against its brutal crackdown on civilians during the civil war will be reinstated if they wish to return to their posts, the country’s Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.
Authorities will soon begin to accept requests for reinstatement from the dissenting non-commissioned officers and other personnel.
Assem Ghalioun, director of the ministry’s Information and Communication Department, described them as an integral part of the new army. He highlighted the role they had played in “defecting from the traitorous army and their participation in the Syrian revolution,” Syria’s SANA news agency reported.
There are no official figures on the number of officers and soldiers who abandoned the Assad regime’s forces or defected. A 2014 report by the Carnegie Institute estimated that the number could have ranged from 20,000 to 100,000 during the early years of the war, which began in 2011 and ended in December last year with the fall of Assad.
The minister of foreign affairs, Asaad Al-Shaibani, this week reinstated 21 diplomats who defected from Assad’s regime. He acknowledged their efforts in exposing the crimes of the regime and praised their commitment to supporting the people of the Syrian Arab Republic and their cause, SANA said.
