Arab Democratic Party (Lebanon)
Encyclopedia
The Arab Democratic Party – ADP ( | al-Hizb al-'Arabi al-Dimuqrati) or Parti Démocratique Arabe (PDA) in French
, is a Lebanese
party, based in Tripoli. Its current leader is Ali Eid
.
The ADP traced back its origins to an earlier leftist students’ organization called the Alawite Youth Movement – AYM (Arabic: حركة الشباب العلوي | Harakat al-Shabab al-Alawiyya) or Mouvement de la Jeunesse Alaouite (MJA) in French
, originally formed in 1972 at Tripoli by Ali Eid
, a chemistry teacher. As its name implies, the AYM drew its support from the Shia Alawite
sect minority of Lebanon
, even receiving the personal backing of Rifa’at al-Assad, Syria
’s vice-president at the time and himself a member of that sect. During the early war years, the AYM kept itself outside the LNM-PLO alliance, but in 1977-78 the movement joined the Patriotic Opposition Front – POF, a pro-Syrian multiconfessional coalition of Lebanese notables and activists founded in Tripoli by the MP Talal El-Merhebi (elected in 1972), Souhale Hamadah, Rashid Al-Muadim, George Mourani, and Nassib Al-Khatib, with Ali Eid
being elected vice-president of the new formation.
However, internal disagreements soon led to the dissolution of the alliance at the early 1980s, when Eid and some of its ex-coalition partners went to form in 1982 the ADP, choosing the Sunni Muslim lawyer Nassib Al-Khatib as their first Secretary-General, later replaced by Ali Eid
in 1985. In the process, the AYM was absorbed into the new party and became its youth branch.
community, though their pro-Syrian stance and secular views put them at odds with Sunni Islamist factions in Tripoli. Despite its alignment with Damascus
’ politics, however, the ADP seems to have played an instrumental role in helping the PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat
and its loyalist forces in slipping out from Tripoli by sea in December 1983, after being expelled by the Syrian Army
.
’ presence in Lebanon
, in particular the Sunni Islamic Unification Movement
, since 1981-82, which they suppressed with the help of the Syrian army
, the pro-Syrian Syrian Social Nationalist Party
and Baath Party
factions and the Lebanese Communist Party
(LCP) in 1985-86.
The ADP/ARK also joined the LNRF (Jammoul
) guerrilla alliance in September 1982 to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and later its successor, the wider Syrian-sponsored Lebanese National Salvation Front (LNSF) in July 1983 against the American-backed government of President Amin Gemayel. In 1988-1990 they supported the parliament-based provisional government of Selim al-Hoss
against Gen. Michel Aoun
’s military interim government.
with Syrian support its own militia, the Arab Red Knights – ARK or Red Knights for short. Trained by Rifa’at’s ‘Defense Companies
’, they were also known as the ‘Pink Panthers’ due to their green- and raspberry-colored camouflage uniforms. Commanded by Ali Eid
the ARK was about 1,000-strong, organized into infantry, signals, medical and Military Police ‘branches’, plus a motorized corps made of gun-trucks (Santana 88 Ligero Militar jeeps, Land Rover
s, and Toyota Land Cruisers) equipped with heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles and Anti-Aircraft autocannons. The ADP/ARK operated manly in northern Lebanon, with its main stronghold in the adjacent Alawite-populated Jabal Muhsin, a sub-urban strategic high ground area overlooking the whole city of Tripoli though they also claimed to control some of the Alawite villages of the Akkar region right up to the Lebanese-Syrian border.
, by the mid-1980s the Red Knights controlled the city’s commercial harbour and oil refinery – the second large deep-waters port of Lebanon – in collusion with the director of Tripoli’s harbour Ahmad Karami and corrupt Syrian army
officers. The National Fuel Company (NFC) headed by Haj Muhammad Awadah, to run in their behalf a profitable fuel smuggling ring that stretched to the Beqaa Valley
.
was elected in 1991 to the newly-established Alawite seat in the Lebanese Parliament. Prior to this, no Alawite had been elected to the Lebanese parliament. The Party seems to have revised his traditional pro-Syrian stance in the 1990s, in favour of a moderate, cautious neutralist posture in the current sphere of Lebanon’s internal politics.
In 2005 it was rumoured that Rifa'at al-Assad was reviving the Red Knights militia in Tripoli. It was active during the 2008 Lebanon conflict, now led by Ali Eid's son Rifaat, being between 1,000 and 2,000 men strong. It had rearmed during the 2007 Lebanon conflict
, after which it was revealed that the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam
had planned to attack the Alawis of Tripoli. During the 2008 conflict, where Sunnis and Shias fought throughout Lebanon, Rifat said in an interview: "We're the most convenient targets, the stand-in for Hezbollah, our problem can only be solved when the Shiites and Sunnis solve theirs." As many as 9.000 Alawis fled their homes during the conflict.
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, is a Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
party, based in Tripoli. Its current leader is Ali Eid
Ali Eid
Ali Eid is the leader of the Lebanese Arab Democratic Party.-Life:Ali Eid was born in Tibani, Tripoli, Lebanon. The eldest son of Youssef Eid, a wheat dealer, and his wife Amoun Eid, he began his studies at Tibbineh Boys School known as the American School. In the summer he would study at the...
.
Origins
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, originally formed in 1972 at Tripoli by Ali Eid
Ali Eid
Ali Eid is the leader of the Lebanese Arab Democratic Party.-Life:Ali Eid was born in Tibani, Tripoli, Lebanon. The eldest son of Youssef Eid, a wheat dealer, and his wife Amoun Eid, he began his studies at Tibbineh Boys School known as the American School. In the summer he would study at the...
, a chemistry teacher. As its name implies, the AYM drew its support from the Shia Alawite
Alawite
The Alawis, also known as Alawites, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical and syncretic religious group centred in Syria who are a branch of Shia Islam.-Etymology:...
sect minority of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, even receiving the personal backing of Rifa’at al-Assad, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
’s vice-president at the time and himself a member of that sect. During the early war years, the AYM kept itself outside the LNM-PLO alliance, but in 1977-78 the movement joined the Patriotic Opposition Front – POF, a pro-Syrian multiconfessional coalition of Lebanese notables and activists founded in Tripoli by the MP Talal El-Merhebi (elected in 1972), Souhale Hamadah, Rashid Al-Muadim, George Mourani, and Nassib Al-Khatib, with Ali Eid
Ali Eid
Ali Eid is the leader of the Lebanese Arab Democratic Party.-Life:Ali Eid was born in Tibani, Tripoli, Lebanon. The eldest son of Youssef Eid, a wheat dealer, and his wife Amoun Eid, he began his studies at Tibbineh Boys School known as the American School. In the summer he would study at the...
being elected vice-president of the new formation.
However, internal disagreements soon led to the dissolution of the alliance at the early 1980s, when Eid and some of its ex-coalition partners went to form in 1982 the ADP, choosing the Sunni Muslim lawyer Nassib Al-Khatib as their first Secretary-General, later replaced by Ali Eid
Ali Eid
Ali Eid is the leader of the Lebanese Arab Democratic Party.-Life:Ali Eid was born in Tibani, Tripoli, Lebanon. The eldest son of Youssef Eid, a wheat dealer, and his wife Amoun Eid, he began his studies at Tibbineh Boys School known as the American School. In the summer he would study at the...
in 1985. In the process, the AYM was absorbed into the new party and became its youth branch.
Political beliefs
Pan-Arab nationalist and radical socialist, the ADP ostensibly claimed to represent the interests of the small Lebanese AlawiteAlawite
The Alawis, also known as Alawites, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical and syncretic religious group centred in Syria who are a branch of Shia Islam.-Etymology:...
community, though their pro-Syrian stance and secular views put them at odds with Sunni Islamist factions in Tripoli. Despite its alignment with Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
’ politics, however, the ADP seems to have played an instrumental role in helping the PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
and its loyalist forces in slipping out from Tripoli by sea in December 1983, after being expelled by the Syrian Army
Syrian Army
The Syrian Army, officially called the Syrian Arab Army, is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the senior most posts in the armed forces, and has the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the...
.
The ADP in the civil war 1982-1990
Widely regarded as a Syrian-backed proxy force, the ADP and its Red Knights' battled several Tripoli-based factions hostile to DamascusDamascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
’ presence in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, in particular the Sunni Islamic Unification Movement
Islamic Unification Movement
The Islamic Unification Movement – IUM , also named Islamic Unity Movement or Mouvement de Unification Islamique in French, but best known as ‘Al-Tawhid’, ‘At-Tawhid’, or ‘Tawheed’, is a Lebanese Sunni Muslim fundamentalist political party...
, since 1981-82, which they suppressed with the help of the Syrian army
Syrian Army
The Syrian Army, officially called the Syrian Arab Army, is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the senior most posts in the armed forces, and has the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the...
, the pro-Syrian Syrian Social Nationalist Party
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party , is a secular nationalist political party in Lebanon and Syria. It advocates the establishment of a Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, Cyprus, Kuwait,...
and Baath Party
Baath Party
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was a political party mixing Arab nationalist and Arab socialist interests, opposed to Western imperialism, and calling for the renaissance or resurrection and unification of the Arab world into a single state. Ba'ath is also spelled Ba'th or Baath and means...
factions and the Lebanese Communist Party
Lebanese Communist Party
The Lebanese Communist Party – LCP or Parti communiste libanais in French, is a communist political party in Lebanon...
(LCP) in 1985-86.
The ADP/ARK also joined the LNRF (Jammoul
Jammoul
The Lebanese National Resistance Front – LNRF or Front National de la Résistance Libanaise in French, but best known by its Arabic acronym, ‘Jammoul’ was an underground guerrilla alliance active in Lebanon in the 1980s...
) guerrilla alliance in September 1982 to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and later its successor, the wider Syrian-sponsored Lebanese National Salvation Front (LNSF) in July 1983 against the American-backed government of President Amin Gemayel. In 1988-1990 they supported the parliament-based provisional government of Selim al-Hoss
Selim al-Hoss
Selim Ahmed El-Hoss is a veteran Lebanese politician. He was a Prime Minister of Lebanon and a longtime Member of Parliament representing his hometown, Beirut.-Education:...
against Gen. Michel Aoun
Michel Aoun
Michel Naim Aoun is a former Lebanese Army Commander and he is one of the allies of Hezbollah. From 22 September 1988 to 13 October 1990, he has served as Prime Minister of the legal one of two rival governments that contended for power. He declared "The Liberation War" against the Syrian...
’s military interim government.
Military structure and organization
The ADP raised in July 1981July 1981
January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - DecemberThe following events occurred in July 1981.-July 1, 1981 :...
with Syrian support its own militia, the Arab Red Knights – ARK or Red Knights for short. Trained by Rifa’at’s ‘Defense Companies
Defense companies
The Defense Companies were a paramilitary force in Syria that were controlled by Rifaat al-Assad. Their task was to defend the Assad government, and Damascus, from internal and external attack...
’, they were also known as the ‘Pink Panthers’ due to their green- and raspberry-colored camouflage uniforms. Commanded by Ali Eid
Ali Eid
Ali Eid is the leader of the Lebanese Arab Democratic Party.-Life:Ali Eid was born in Tibani, Tripoli, Lebanon. The eldest son of Youssef Eid, a wheat dealer, and his wife Amoun Eid, he began his studies at Tibbineh Boys School known as the American School. In the summer he would study at the...
the ARK was about 1,000-strong, organized into infantry, signals, medical and Military Police ‘branches’, plus a motorized corps made of gun-trucks (Santana 88 Ligero Militar jeeps, Land Rover
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British car manufacturer with its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles. It is owned by the Indian company Tata Motors, forming part of their Jaguar Land Rover group...
s, and Toyota Land Cruisers) equipped with heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles and Anti-Aircraft autocannons. The ADP/ARK operated manly in northern Lebanon, with its main stronghold in the adjacent Alawite-populated Jabal Muhsin, a sub-urban strategic high ground area overlooking the whole city of Tripoli though they also claimed to control some of the Alawite villages of the Akkar region right up to the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Illegal activities
Financed and armed by SyriaSyria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, by the mid-1980s the Red Knights controlled the city’s commercial harbour and oil refinery – the second large deep-waters port of Lebanon – in collusion with the director of Tripoli’s harbour Ahmad Karami and corrupt Syrian army
Syrian Army
The Syrian Army, officially called the Syrian Arab Army, is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the senior most posts in the armed forces, and has the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the...
officers. The National Fuel Company (NFC) headed by Haj Muhammad Awadah, to run in their behalf a profitable fuel smuggling ring that stretched to the Beqaa Valley
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley is a fertile valley in east Lebanon. For the Romans, the Beqaa Valley was a major agricultural source, and today it remains Lebanon’s most important farming region...
.
The post-war years
After the end of the civil strife in October 1990, the ADP was disarmed and its leader Ali EidAli Eid
Ali Eid is the leader of the Lebanese Arab Democratic Party.-Life:Ali Eid was born in Tibani, Tripoli, Lebanon. The eldest son of Youssef Eid, a wheat dealer, and his wife Amoun Eid, he began his studies at Tibbineh Boys School known as the American School. In the summer he would study at the...
was elected in 1991 to the newly-established Alawite seat in the Lebanese Parliament. Prior to this, no Alawite had been elected to the Lebanese parliament. The Party seems to have revised his traditional pro-Syrian stance in the 1990s, in favour of a moderate, cautious neutralist posture in the current sphere of Lebanon’s internal politics.
In 2005 it was rumoured that Rifa'at al-Assad was reviving the Red Knights militia in Tripoli. It was active during the 2008 Lebanon conflict, now led by Ali Eid's son Rifaat, being between 1,000 and 2,000 men strong. It had rearmed during the 2007 Lebanon conflict
2007 Lebanon conflict
The 2007 Lebanon conflict began when fighting broke out between Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist militant organization, and the Lebanese Armed Forces on May 20, 2007 in Nahr al-Bared, an UNRWA Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli. It was the most severe internal fighting since Lebanon's 1975–90 civil...
, after which it was revealed that the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam
Fatah al-Islam
Fatah al-Islam, is a radical Sunni Islamist group that formed in November 2006 in a Palestinian refugee camp, located in Lebanon. It has been described as a militant jihadist movement that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda...
had planned to attack the Alawis of Tripoli. During the 2008 conflict, where Sunnis and Shias fought throughout Lebanon, Rifat said in an interview: "We're the most convenient targets, the stand-in for Hezbollah, our problem can only be solved when the Shiites and Sunnis solve theirs." As many as 9.000 Alawis fled their homes during the conflict.