Surayud Chulanont
President of the Privy Council of Thailand
Surayud Chulanont (Thai: สุรยุทธ์ จุลานนท์, RTGS: Surayut Chulanon, IPA: [sù.rá.jút t͡ɕù.laː.non]; born 28 August 1943) is a Thai former politician and military officer who was the 24th prime minister of Thailand and head of Thailand's interim government between 2006 and 2008. He is a former supreme commander of the Royal Thai Army and is currently Privy Councilor to King Vajiralongkorn.
Surayud came from a military family, but his father defected from the Royal Thai Army to the Communist Party of Thailand when Surayud was a boy. Surayud joined the Thai Army and rose to power as an aide to General Prem Tinsulanonda. He commanded troops during Bloody May, the violent 1992 crackdown on anti-government protesters, but he denied giving his men the order to shoot protesters. He was promoted to army commander during the government of Chuan Leekpai and was promoted to supreme commander in 2003, under the government of Thaksin Shinawatra. Upon his retirement from the army, he was appointed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej to the Privy Council of Thailand. Surayud and Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda played a key role in the promotion of General Sonthi Boonratklin to the position of army commander.
Sonthi overthrew the government of Thaksin in a coup on 19 September 2006 and implored Surayud to be the head of interim government. Surayud's government was controversial.
The public source identifies “Surayud Chulanont” as president of the Privy Council of Thailand. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Surayud, Chulanont and President.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q298079. VIAF identifies the subject as 65889802. The Library of Congress control number is n2005210158. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 2006, 2008 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “Surayud Chulanont” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.