Émile Lahoud
Émile Jamil Lahoud (born 12 January 1936) is a Lebanese politician who served as the 16th president of Lebanon from 1998 to 2007. His main foreign policy achievement was to end the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon in May 2000, which had been occupied since 1982. He downplayed sectarianism and rearmed the Lebanese army, with help from Syria. However, factionalism and Lebanon's politics undermined his strength.
In this Lebanese name, the father's name is Jamil and the family name is Lahoud.
Émile Lahoud
Fouad Siniora (acting)
Michel Suleiman
12 January 1936
Baabdat, French Lebanon
1956–1980 (Navy)
1980–1998 (Army)
Early life[edit]
Émile Lahoud was born in Baabdat on 12 January 1936.[1] However, his birthplace is given as Beirut by the Armed Forces.[2] He is the youngest son of General and former minister Jamil Lahoud. His mother, Andrenee Bajakian, is of Armenian descent from the Armenian-populated village of Kesab in Syria.[1] Lahoud's older brother, Nasri Lahoud, was a judge who served as the military prosecutor general.[3] Émile Lahoud is the nephew of Salim Lahoud who served as Lebanese foreign minister from 1955 to 1957.[4]
Émile Lahoud is the great-grandson of Takouhi Kalebjian and Minas Sagerian on his maternal side who were from Adabazar, Ottoman Empire (now Adapazarı, Republic of Turkey). Adabazar is located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) outside Istanbul on the Black Sea. Both Minas and Takouhi were massacred during the Armenian genocide which occurred under the rule of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.[5]
in 2001, Lahoud visited Armenia. In his short working visit, he found time to walk around Yerevan and visit Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian Genocide memorial complex and laid a wreath at the eternal flame in the memory of the victims.[6]
Lahoud received his elementary education at the Collège de la Sagesse in Beirut and his secondary education at Brummana High School in north Metn.[7] He entered the military academy as a naval cadet in 1956 and studied there for one year.[3] He then attended Dartmouth Naval College in the United Kingdom.[3] He returned to the Lebanese military academy and graduated later as an ensign.[3][8] In 1986, he took a navy engineering course at the Naval Engineering Academy in the United Kingdom.[3] As a captain, he attended the U.S. Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, graduating in 1973.[9]
Military life[edit]
Lahoud became lieutenant junior grade on 18 September 1962 and lieutenant on 1 April 1969. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 January 1974 and to commander on 1 January 1976. He then began to serve as a Navy Engineer Staff Captain from 1 January 1980 and as a Navy Engineer Staff Rear Admiral from 1 January 1985. On 28 November 1989, he was promoted to Major Lieutenant General.[2]
Although he was trained as a naval officer, Lahoud benefited from the appointment of his maternal cousin, General Jean Njeim, as army commander and was appointed to head the transportation section of the army's fourth division in 1970.[7] Although Njeim died in a helicopter crash in 1971, Lahoud steadily rose through the ranks of its officer corps.[10] In 1980, he was appointed Director of Personnel in the Army Command.[7] In 1983, he was given an administrative position at the Defense Ministry, where he was responsible for coordination between ministry officials and the Commander of the Lebanese Army, a position which was held by Michel Aoun in 1984.[7]
In 1989, Lahoud was appointed to the post of Commander in chief of the army as part of Elias Hraoui's Western/Arab backed government in West Beirut. As part of the Taef agreement – to extend the authority of the new Lebanese government in Lebanese Forces controlled areas – Lahoud sent General Elie Hayek to take control of Mount Lebanon north of Baabda.[11] During his career as chief of the LAF, Lahoud allowed Lebanese's security-military apparatus to be firmly controlled by Syria.[12]
Personal life[edit]
He married Andrée Amadouni in 1967 and they have three children: Karine (born 1969), the former spouse of Elias Murr, Emile (born 1975) and Ralph (born 1977).[1][28]
The book Years of Resistance: The Mandate of Emile Lahood, the Former President of Lebanon by Karim Pakradouni, published in May 2012, reviews his political life and his impact on the contemporary history of Lebanon and the Middle East crisis.[29]