New Syrian opposition leader pledges to repair coalition's relations

The newly elected president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SNC), Khaled Khoja, said the priority of his presidency would be repairing relations within the SNC and pushing initiatives to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Khoja, who was elected at a meeting of the coalition of Syrian opposition groups' general assembly in Istanbul on Sunday, said the coalition would work with factions of the military opposition and activists to bring down the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and lay the foundations of a democratic administration.

Khoja won 56 votes out of 109 cast defeating his only rival, Nasr al-Hariri, the coalition's former secretary general, who won 50 votes. Khoja described his election as a democratic consensus between the electoral blocs.

Nagham al-Ghardi and Hisham Mroueh, the SNC's representative in Saudi Arabia, were elected as vice-presidents, and Yehya Maktabi was elected secretary-general. Nadir Othman was elected deputy prime minister, Samah Hadaya the culture minister, and Abdulrazaq Hussein as justice minister.

Before his election as president, Khaled Khoja served as the coalition's representative in Turkey.

Candidates for four ministerial positions and the one deputy prime minister post failed to receive majorities, so these positions are vacant pending a second round of voting.

Former ministers Ibrahim Miro and Elias Wardah, who failed to secure their positions again in the latest round of voting, will continue to discharge their duties until they are filled by new candidates.

A life in exile

Before his election as SNC president, Khaled Khoja served as the coalition's representative in Turkey. Khoja was born in Damascus in 1965 to a Turkish family, and was detained for the first time by the Assad regime for four months in 1980, then in 1981 for one year and three months.

Khoja moved to Libya after his release and completed his high school education in 1985. He studied political science at Istanbul University for two years before moving to Izmir and majoring in medicine. He graduated in 1995 and has worked in the medical field since.

Khoja was active in the uprising from the beginning, working with Syrian refugees and appearing as a political analyst on Turkish, Arabic and international TV channels. Khoja also played a role in establishing the SNC in November 2012.

He speaks Arabic, Turkish and English.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.