Khalid Bakdash was a Syrian politician who lead the Syrian Communist Party from 1936 until his death in 1995.
15 Facts About Khalid Bakdash
2.
In 1954, Bakdash became the first member of a communist party to be elected to an Arab parliament.
3.
Khalid Bakdash has since been called the "dean of Arab communism".
4.
Khalid Bakdash was first recruited to the communist cause at the age of 18, while a student at Damascus University.
5.
Khalid Bakdash was active in student agitation against the French occupation of Syria, and came to the attention of the police.
6.
Khalid Bakdash led the Syrian underground against Vichy France during that regime's control of Syria.
7.
Khalid Bakdash took a moderate approach as secretary of the Syrian Communist Party.
8.
Khalid Bakdash had, in particular, a stormy relationship with Fahd, leader of the Iraqi Communist Party from 1941 until 1949.
9.
Khalid Bakdash won a seat in Parliament in 1954, and during Syria's turbulent democratic period from 1954 to 1958 steered a cautious course.
10.
Khalid Bakdash was extremely critical of Nasser, especially after the latter started a campaign of repression against his political opponents, notably the Communists and Muslim Brothers.
11.
However, Khalid Bakdash himself provoked a harsh reaction from the Egyptian leader with his attack on the latter's policies published in December 1958, in which he called for legalization of political parties and transformation of the UAR into a loose federation.
12.
Khalid Bakdash himself left Syria for Moscow, where he would stay until 1966.
13.
Khalid Bakdash was allowed to return from Moscow, but forbidden from engaging in public political activity.
14.
Many of the intellectuals in the party left with Faisal, while Khalid Bakdash retained the support of the party's considerable Kurdish base.
15.
Khalid Bakdash died in Damascus in 1995 at the age of 83.