Democratic Arab Socialist Union
The Democratic Arab Socialist Union is a Nasserist democratic socialist Syrian political party based in Paris, France. It was founded in a split of the Arab Socialist Union Party of Syria and Hassan Abdul Azim is its general secretary.
Is part of the National Democratic Rally coalition.
After Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970, the ASU entered into negotiations about a coalition government, and agreed to join the National Progressive Front in 1972. The year after, however, the party split over the adoption of a Syrian constitution in which the Baath was proclaimed the "leading party" of the country. One minor faction under Fawzi Kiyali accepted the constitution, and retained both the ASU name and the NPF membership, while most members followed party leader Jamal al-Atassi into opposition, by renaming themselves the Democratic Arab Socialist Union.
Hassan Ismail Abdelazim was arrested by the Syrian authorities in May 2011 as a crackdown on opposition forces in Syria.
