Turkyie apprehends the kidnapper of first defector from Syria's Assad army

                             Harmoush

The Turkish intelligence service announced yesterday that it had arrested a former Alawite security officer convicted of kidnapping Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush — the first high‑ranking officer to defect from Assad’s army and the founder of the Free Officers Movement — as well as activist Mustafa Qassoum from one of the camps near the Turkish border, before handing both men over to Assad’s intelligence services. Harmoush was killed under torture, while Qassoum was released and fled to the Netherlands under unknown circumstances, according to the Zaman al‑Wasl website.

                               Qassoum

Turkish sources said that intelligence forces arrested Önder Sığırcioglu while he was attempting to flee from Syria toward Lebanon in coordination with Syrian intelligence, describing him as an agent of Assad’s intelligence and Russian intelligence. Because of his involvement in the kidnapping of Harmoush, Turkey had arrested Sığırcioglu and sentenced him to twenty years in prison, but he escaped in 2014 under what were described as “suspicious circumstances” and disappeared until his arrest yesterday.

                                   Oglu

Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush announced his defection from Assad’s army in June 2011 in response to the regime’s repression of peaceful protesters. He founded the Free Officers Movement, the first organized military group to break away from Assad’s forces, inspiring hundreds of others to defect after him.

After Harmoush was killed, Colonel Riad al‑Asaad announced his own defection and founded the Free Syrian Army in July 2011 from the remnants of the Free Officers Movement and other defectors, marking the beginning of the organized armed struggle in the Syrian revolution.

                           Al-Asa'ad

At the start of the Syrian revolution, Turkey supported opposition‑aligned Syrian civilians and sheltered dozens of soldiers and officers who left Assad’s army and sought refuge in Turkish camps. Later, Turkey coordinated Arab‑Western military support for the Free Syrian Army. But after Russia’s military intervention, Turkey’s role diminished until President Erdoğan sought reconciliation with Bashar al‑Assad — before Hay’at Tahrir al‑Sham, led by Abu Muhammad al‑Jolani, upended the situation and toppled Assad’s regime in a swift military operation called “Deterring the Aggression.”

                       Al‑Jolani/ Shar'a

Syrian revolutionaries proudly honor Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmoush, the first to establish the tradition of defection from Assad’s army, and they celebrate Riad al‑Asaad, who has risen to the rank of brigadier general within the advisory council of the new Syrian Ministry of Defense. Meanwhile, Abu Muhammad al‑Jolani has become the President of the Syrian Arab Republic under the name Ahmad al‑Shar’a.

Syria news report