Former minister, writer, and ex-member of the Kataeb Party Sejaan Azzi passed away on Thursday May 11 at the age of 71 after a struggle with illness.
His death prompted reactions by Lebanese officials and journalists.
Kataeb Party leader MP Samy Gemayel tweeted: “We are saddened by the death of former minister Sejaan Azzi. With his passing, Lebanon has lost a fighter who dedicated his life to defending the Lebanese cause within the Kataeb Party and the Lebanese resistance. Lebanon has also lost a writer who wrote extensively about the issues of his homeland. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends, and ask that God accept him by His side.”
Prominent journalist Gaby Lteif wrote: “Sad news today. A companion through Lebanon’s most difficult days, you will stay in our hearts forever.”
MP Melhem Riachi tweeted: “A master of words, comrade of Bachir (Gemayel) and wielder of the pen. He closed the chapter early and left. Until we meet again, man of the eternal pen!”
Druze MP of the Democratic Gathering bloc Akram Chehayeb also expressed on Twitter: “Whether I agreed with Sejaan Azzi or not, you cannot but feel sad for the passing of a political figure who sincerely stood by his beliefs. I worked with him in government, where his position was always frank and his opposition bold.”
The head of the Lebanese Journalists Syndicate, Joseph al-Qossaifi, also mourned Azzi, saying: “Sejaan Azzi left us at the peak of his political vitality and intellectual and cultural excellence. With him disappears his creative pen and the refined language that flowed smoothly into people’s minds and ears as he explained his national, political, and social positions.”
“A long political career”
Sejaan Azzi was since the beginning of the Lebanese war, one of the pillars of the fight led by the sovereign camp and the Lebanese Resistance against the “state within a state” imposed in the early 1970s by armed Palestinian organizations. Throughout his long political career, he consistently defended the idea of a pluralistic, liberal Lebanon that respects public and individual freedoms and is open to the world. Maronite Patriarch Béchara Raï visited him on Thursday morning to be by his side before his final journey.
Born on November 6, 1952, in Okaïbeh, Kesrouan, Sejaan Assi joined the Kataeb party at a young age and later assumed several leadership positions within this party. In 1975, at the beginning of the Lebanese war, he served as the Director of Information at the Voice of Lebanon (VDL), the Kataeb’s media outlet. At the same time, he published political analysis articles in the party’s daily newspaper, al-Aamal (The Action), and contributed to several media outlets, including the French-language weekly, Magazine, Télé Liban (French channel), and the newspaper, el-Jarida.
In 1978, at the initiative of the leader of the Lebanese Forces, Bachir Gemayel, he founded the official radio station of the LF, which took radical positions under the Syrian occupation. He led the LF radio until 1986.
In 1986, he founded the Société générale d’Etudes et de Consultation (SOGETCO) in Paris, specializing in political and economic studies focused on the Middle East region. He published four books on the ancient history of Lebanon and gave numerous lectures in Lebanon, Europe, and the United States. During the war years and the chronic crisis that shook Lebanon, he served as an advisor to Bachir Gemayel, then to former President Amine Gemayel, and more recently to Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Béchara Raï, with whom he was very close.
In 2009, he ran as a candidate for the Kataeb party in the parliamentary elections on the March 14 list in the Kesrouan district, but he was not elected, despite achieving a high score.
In February 2014, he was appointed Minister of Labor, representing the Kataeb party, in the government of Tammam Salam.
