Khaberni - Hassan Abdel Azim, a prominent Syrian opposition figure, passed away on Saturday in Damascus. He was the former Secretary-General of the Democratic Arab Socialist Union and the General Coordinator of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change Forces.
The Democratic Arab Socialist Union Party in Syria mourned its former Secretary-General, Hassan Abdel Azim, who passed away at the age of 94 years after a political career spanning more than half a century, considering him one of the most prominent founders of the party since 1964, and one of the pillars of opposition political work inside Syria.
Abdel Azim began his professional life as a teacher, and after graduating from the Faculty of Law, he moved to work in law. Influenced by Nasserist thought, he admired and theorized the ideas of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and was also intrigued by leftist nationalist movements.
Hassan Abdel Azim joined the Socialist Unionists movement, before joining the Democratic Arab Socialist Union led by Jamal Al-Atassi in July 1964, where he held several positions within the party before being elected as Secretary-General following the death of Jamal Al-Atassi in 2000.
He was also elected as a member of the Syrian People's Assembly between 1971 and 1973, and served as the spokesperson for the "National Democratic Rally" since May 2000.
With the accession of former President Bashar Al-Assad to power in 2000, the role of Hassan Abdel Azim in the political and intellectual movement known at the time as the "Damascus Spring" became prominent, where the field was opened then for limited political discussions before it was closed.
He also participated in the founding of the "Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change" in 2005, which was signed by a number of opposition parties and national figures, and was among the most prominent political documents opposing the regime before the Syrian Revolution.
With the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution in 2011, Abdel Azim contributed to the founding of the "National Coordination Body" in June 2011, and assumed the position of its General Coordinator. He also participated in the "High Negotiations Commission" of the revolution and opposition forces in Syria in the second version emanating from the "Riyadh 2" conference in 2017.
Hassan Abdel Azim was characterized by conducting his political activity and opposing the Assad regime from inside Damascus, unlike the overwhelming majority of Syrian opponents, where he insisted on distinguishing between what he called "internal opposition" and "external opposition".
He criticized the formation of the "Syrian National Council" and the "National Coalition" outside Syria, denying them what he described as "external support", considering that true opposition should originate from within and be independent of external agendas.
Hassan Abdel Azim is considered one of the last symbols of the national leftist political generation in Syria, who combined opposition to the regime with a rejection of foreign intervention in Syrian affairs. He left behind a legacy of political struggle inside and outside prisons, and intellectual contributions to the path of democratic transformation in Syria.
