Abdelhamid Escheikh

Abdelhamid Escheikh (10 March 1935 – 8 November 1999), was a General officer, diplomat and Tunisian politician. He served as Chief of Defense Staff in the early 1980s.

Abdelhamid Escheikh
عبد الحميد الشيخ
Abdelhamid Escheikh in 1981
Minister of the Interior
In office 3 March 1990 – 17 February 1991
President	Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Prime Minister	Hamed Karoui
Preceded by	Chédli Neffati
Succeeded by	Abdallah Kallel
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 7 November 1988 – 3 March 1990
President	Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Prime Minister	Hédi Baccouche Hamed Karoui
Preceded by	Mahmoud Mestiri
Succeeded by	Ismaïl Khelil
Minister of Youth and Sports
In office 12 April 1988 – 27 July 1988
President	Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Prime Minister	Hédi Baccouche
Preceded by	Fouad Mebazaa
Succeeded by	Hamouda Ben Slama
Personal details
Born	(1935-03-10)10 March 1935 Tunis, Tunisia
Died	8 November 1999(1999-11-08) (aged 64) Tunis, Tunisia
Profession	General officer, Diplomat, politician

Career

Military career

When Tunisia gained independence in 1956, he began studying law before being sent for training to the Special Military School of Saint-Cyr in France with other executives of the future Tunisian Armed Forces (Bourgiba promotion). He continued his training at the United States Army Command and General Staff College in 1965–1966 and at the Higher War College in 1970–1972.

During the Algerian War, he was sent to the border area to carry out control work. He was also involved in a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960. During the Bizerte crisis, he was appointed to the tactical staff. He subsequently served as military attaché at the Tunisian embassy in France. After his return to Tunisia, he rose through the ranks of the Tunisian Army until becoming Chief of Staff of the Army and then Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. He was then the youngest senior officer to have been promoted to the highest military rank, that of lieutenant general.

Political career

Following the congress of the Socialist Destourian Party in 1979, the organization of which was entrusted to the Tunisian Army, he joined diplomacy. He subsequently sat in the governments of Hédi Baccouche and Hamed Karoui where he assumed several responsibilities including those of Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Interior. Between May 1991 and September 1996, he served as Tunisian ambassador to Khartoum, Algiers, Dakar and Paris.

Sporting role

In addition to having been a footballer in the youth categories of the Jeunesse sportive métouienne, Abdelhamid Escheikh is president of several sports federations: football, shooting and equestrian sports. He was also responsible for chairing the organizing committee for the 2001 Mediterranean Games held in Tunisia, but died two years before the event following a long illness; the function is then attributed to Habib Ammar.