Hamad bin Chalifa Al Thani

Hamad bin Chalifa Al Thani

Sheikh Hamad bin Chalifa bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Dschasim bin Muhammed Al Thani ( Arabic حمد بن خليفة آل ثاني, DMG Ḥamad b. Ḫalīfa Āl Ṯānī ; * 1952 in Doha ) was the head of state of the emirate of Qatar from 1995 to 2013 .

Life

Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is part of the widely ramified dynasty Al Thani , one originally from what is now Saudi Arabia coming Bedouin - communities which since the 19th century is the ruler of Qatar.

He graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK in 1971 . He then went through an officer career in Qatar's army and made it to the rank of commander- in -chief with the rank of major general . During this time he developed reform plans to modernize the army structures. In 1977 he was appointed Crown Prince and Defense Minister at the same time, and in 1991 he was instrumental in the liberation of Kuwait in the Second Gulf War . From 1979 to 1991 he also chaired the high council for youth welfare in his country. In 1995, he deposed his father, Emir Chalifa bin Hamad Al Thani , in a bloodless coup while he was in Geneva, Switzerland. He began to modernize the country, to open it up to the West and to convert it into democratic structures: Under his rule, Qatar was the first state in the Gulf region to introduce active and passive local women's suffrage in 1999, and in 2003 a new constitution with universal suffrage and a parliament ( Shura ). The implementation of parliamentary elections is still only in the planning stage even under his successor (as of August 2019).

In 1996 he founded the Arab news channel Al Jazeera in the capital of Qatar, Doha . The emir is one of the USA's most important allies in the Gulf region: together with one of his wives, Sheikha Musa bint Nasser al-Missned , sociologist and acting Minister of Education for Qatar, he founded six American universities in Doha with lectures broadcast live from the USA. He brought numerous major sporting events, including the Asian Games in 2006 and the Soccer World Cup in 2022 , to Qatar.

Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has three wives and 27 children, seven of them with Musa, including the heir to the throne, Tamīm bin Hamad Al Thānī, who was born in 1980 .

During the civil war in Syria , he sided with the opposition and called for military intervention.

In October 2012, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani visited the Gaza Strip . He was the first incumbent head of state to tour the sealed-off area since Hamas came to power in 2006. The emirate pledged around 300 million euros for humanitarian reconstruction aid in the Gaza Strip.

On June 25, 2013 Hamad bin Chalifa Al Thani abdicated in favor of his son Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Daily Beast : Article on Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his son Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani , June 25, 2013
2. ^ Official website of the Embassy of Qatar , accessed August 7, 2011
3. ^ Trip to Qatar , image, accessed January 5, 2012
4. ↑ fab / dapd / Reuters / dpa: Emir of Qatar calls for UN intervention in Syria. In: Spiegel Online . September 25, 2012, accessed April 17, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Middle East: First state visit to the Gaza Strip at dw.de, October 23, 2012 (accessed October 24, 2012).
6. ↑ Christoph Sydow: Change of power in Qatar: Gernegroß II. In: Spiegel Online , June 25, 2013. Retrieved June 25, 2013.

Web links

Commons : Hamad bin Chalifa Al Thani  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in the nndb (English)