Armed Men Enter SSNP's Batroun Dept. amid Party Rift
Armed members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party on Wednesday seized control of the SSNP department’s office in the northern city of Batroun, amid a dispute between rival factions over the legitimacy of the party’s latest internal elections.
A video that went viral on social media shows a party official making a statement inside the office, flanked by two young men carrying machineguns.
“The office has been closed for more than a year and the party has been obliged to take a decision to use the office,” the official says.
“It is our mission to protect this department with our blood and souls,” he adds, noting that “any comrade who would like to cooperate and join the Batroun department will be considered an SSNP comrade.”
But he threatened that “any person who dares to transgress will be considered a traitor!”
In a statement, a rival SSNP faction accused “an armed clique belonging to MP Asaad Hardan” of “storming the SSNP department’s office in the heart of the souks of the safe city of Batroun, in a behavior resembling the work of outlaw gangs.”
It also stressed to Batroun’s residents that it is “keen on the region’s stability and the security of its people,” noting that “this act does not reflect the ethics of SSNP members.”
A statement issued by the pro-Hardan faction meanwhile accused the rival faction of being “impersonators claiming to be the party’s leadership through falsification and violations,” in reference to the latest disputed internal elections.
“The circulated story about elements loyal to MP Hardan storming the Batroun department’s office is fabricated and contradicts reality and those present in the office are the SSNP members who operate within the party’s institution,” the faction said.
It added that it is keen on “addressing things within the institutional and legal frameworks on the basis that SSNP supporters who are members of the party’s institutions have the full and ultimate right to be present inside the party’s offices.”
The army later announced the arrest of the armed SSNP members who entered into the Batroun office.
Source: Naharnet
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