Amine Gemayel

Amine Pierre Gemayel (Arabic: أمين بيار الجميٌل‎; born 22 January 1942) was President of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988 and is the leader of Kataeb Party. Gemayel was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly on 21 September 1982, in place of his brother Bachir Gemayel who had been elected the previous month but had been assassinated before taking office.

Early life and education

Gemayel descends from a Maronite Christian family (the Gemayels) with a long tradition in Lebanon. The Gemayel family are originally from the northern region of Mount Lebanon. His ancestors settled in the town of Bikfayya, 25 kilometers northeast of Beirut, in the mid-16th century. Born in the Lebanese town of Bikfaya on 22 January 1942, Amine Gemayel (French pronunciation: ​[aˈmin ʒəmaˈjɛl]) is the eldest son of Pierre Gemayel, founder of the Kataeb Party and his wife Genevieve. He has two sisters and a brother, late Bachir Gemayel. His grandfather was forced to leave Lebanon in the early 20th century as a result of his opposition to the Ottoman Empire and therefore, had to spend several years living in Egypt. Gemayel's great uncle, Antoine, traveled to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 as a political representative of the Maronite Christian community in Lebanon.