A Qatari abdication would not signal major change

On 27 June 1995, the news that Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani had deposed his father, Qatar’s then emir Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al-Thani, made news bulletins across the world. A palace coup makes for good headlines: flanked by loyal officers, Hamad, then 43, told the cabinet: “I am not happy with what has happened but it had to be done and I had to do it.” His father, who was in a luxury hotel in Zurich at the time, described the usurpation as the “abnormal behaviour of an ignorant man”, though his protests faded as the level of support for Hamad became clear.