Color revolution
Encyclopedia
Colour revolutions is a term that was widely used by the media to describe related movements that developed in several societies in the CIS
(former USSR) and Balkan states during the early 2000s. The term has also been applied to a number of revolutions elsewhere, including in the Middle East. Some observers have called the events a revolutionary wave
, the origins of which can be traced back to the 1986 People Power Revolution (also known as the "Yellow Revolution") in the Philippines
.
Participants in the colour revolutions have mostly used nonviolent resistance
, also called civil resistance
. Such methods as demonstrations, strikes and interventions have been intended protest against governments seen as corrupt and/or authoritarian, and to advocate democracy; and they have also created strong pressure for change. These movements generally adopted a specific colour or flower as their symbol. The colour revolutions are notable for the important role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and particularly student activists
in organising creative non-violent resistance.
Such movements have had a measure of success, as for example in Serbia's Bulldozer Revolution (2000); in Georgia's Rose Revolution
(2003); and in Ukraine's Orange Revolution
(2004). In most but not all cases, massive street protests followed disputed elections, or requests for fair elections, and led to the resignation or overthrow of leaders considered by their opponents to be authoritarian
. Some events have been called "colour revolutions" but are different from the above cases in certain basic characteristics. Examples include Lebanon's Cedar Revolution
(2005); and Kuwait's Blue Revolution (2005).
was the first successful peaceful revolution in the contemporary period. It was a series of peaceful demonstration from 1983-1986, attempting to topple an American supported dictator. It inspired the Revolutions of 1989
which actually led to the collapse of Communist Europe.
The terms 'Lotus' and 'Jasmine' Revolution are commonly perceived in the Arab world as Western attempts to orientalise and take nominal ownership over actions very far removed from them, and are indicative of an inherently orientalising tendency to fixate on exotic, sensual items that have no relevancy to actual events.
which occurred in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the Velvet Revolution
in Czechoslovakia
in 1989. A peaceful demonstration by students (mostly from Charles University) was attacked by the police – and in time contributed to the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Yet the roots of the pacifist floral imagery may go even further back to the non-violent Carnation Revolution
of Portugal in the mid 1970s, which is associated with the color carnation because carnation
s were worn, and the 1986 Yellow Revolution in the Philippines where demonstrators offered peace flowers to military personnel manning armoured tanks.
("Resistance") in Serbia, which was founded at Belgrade University in October 1998 and began protesting against Miloševic' during the Kosovo War
. Many of its members were arrested or beaten by the police. Despite this, during the presidential campaign in September 2000, Otpor launched its "Gotov je
" (He's finished) campaign that galvanised Serbian discontent with Miloševic' and resulted in his defeat.
Members of Otpor have inspired and trained members of related student movements including Kmara
in Georgia, Pora in Ukraine, Zubr
in Belarus and MJAFT!
in Albania. These groups have been explicit and scrupulous in their practice of non-violent resistance as advocated and explained in Gene Sharp
's writings. The massive protests that they have organised, which were essential to the successes in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine, have been notable for their colourfulness and use of ridiculing humor in opposing authoritarian leaders.
and/or the United States government of supporting and even planning the revolutions in order to serve Western geopolitical interests. It is noteworthy that after the Orange Revolution several Central Asian nations took action against the Open Society Institute
of George Soros
with various means – Uzbekistan
, for example, forced the shutting down of the OSI regional offices, while Tajik
state-controlled media have accused OSI-Tajikistan of corruption and nepotism.
Evidence suggesting U.S. government involvement includes the USAID (and UNDP) supported Internet structures called Freenet
, which are known to comprise a major part of the Internet structure in at least one of the countries – Kyrgyzstan – in which one of the colour revolutions occurred.
The Guardian
claimed that USAID, National Endowment for Democracy
, the International Republican Institute
, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
, and Freedom House
are directly involved; the Washington Post and the New York Times also reported substantial Western involvement in some of these events.
Activists from Otpor
in Serbia and Pora
in Ukraine have said that publications and training they received from the US based Albert Einstein Institution
staff have been instrumental in the formation of their strategies.
, leader of the New Times political party in Armenia
, has declared his intention to start a "revolution from below" in April 2005, saying that the situation was different now that people had seen the developments in the CIS
. He added that the Armenian revolution will be peaceful but not have a colour.
in mid-2005, inspired by the examples of both Georgia and Ukraine. A youth group, calling itself Yox!
(which means No!), declared its opposition to governmental corruption. The leader of Yox! said that unlike Pora or Kmara
, he wants to change not just the leadership, but the entire system of governance in Azerbaijan. The Yox movement chose green as its colour.
The spearhead of Azerbaijan's attempted colour revolution was Yeni Fekir ("New Idea"), a youth group closely aligned with the Azadlig (Freedom) Bloc of opposition political parties. Along with groups such as Magam ("It's Time") and Dalga ("Wave"), Yeni Fekir deliberately adopted many of the tactics of the Georgian and Ukrainian colour revolution groups, even borrowing the colour orange from
the Ukrainian revolution.
In November 2005 protesters took to the streets, waving orange flags and banners, to protest what they considered government fraud in recent parliamentary elections. The Azerbaijani colour revolution finally fizzled out with the police riot on 26 November, during which dozens of protesters were injured and perhaps hundreds teargassed and sprayed with water cannons.
, there have been a number of protests against President Alexander Lukashenko
, with participation from student group Zubr
. One round of protests culminated on 25 March 2005; it was a self-declared attempt to emulate the Kyrgyzstan revolution, and involved over a thousand citizens. However, police severely suppressed it, arresting over 30 people and imprisoning opposition leader Mikhail Marinich.
A second, much larger, round of protests began almost a year later, on 19 March 2006, soon after the presidential election
. Official results had Lukashenko winning with 83% of the vote; protesters claimed the results were achieved through fraud and voter intimidation, a charge echoed by many foreign governments. Protesters camped out in October Square in Minsk
over the next week, calling variously for the resignation of Lukashenko, the installation of rival candidate Alaksandar Milinkievič
, and new, fair elections.
The opposition originally used as a symbol the white-red-white former flag of Belarus
; the movement has had significant connections with that in neighbouring Ukraine, and during the Orange Revolution some white-red-white flags were seen being waved in Kiev. During the 2006 protests some called it the "Jeans Revolution
" or "Denim Revolution", blue jeans being considered a symbol for freedom. Some protesters cut up jeans into ribbons and hung them in public places. It is claimed that Zubr was responsible for coining the phrase.
Lukashenko has said in the past: "In our country, there will be no pink or orange, or even banana revolution." More recently he's said "They [the West] think that Belarus is ready for some 'orange' or, what is a rather frightening option, 'blue' or 'cornflower blue
' revolution. Such 'blue' revolutions are the last thing we need". On 19 April 2005, he further commented: "All these coloured revolutions are pure and simple banditry."
were referred to in the press as the Saffron Revolution after Buddhist monks (Theravada Buddhist monks normally wear the color saffron) took the vanguard of the protests. A previous, student-led revolution, the 8888 Uprising
on 8 August 1988, had similarities to the colour revolutions, but was violently repressed.
in the United States for a "Jasmine revolution" in the People's Republic of China and repeated on social networking sites in China resulted in blocking of internet searches for "jasmine" and a heavy police presence at designated sites for protest such as the McDonald's in central Beijing, one of the 13 designated protest sites, on 20 February 2011. A crowd did gather there, but their motivations were ambiguous as a crowd tends to draw a crowd in that area. Boxun experienced a denial of service attack during this period and was inaccessible.
, while the Christian Democratic People's Party
adopted orange for its colour in a clear reference to the events of Ukraine.
A name hypothesised for such an event was "grape revolution" because of the abundance of vineyards in the country; however, such a revolution failed to materialise after the governmental victory in the elections. Many reasons have been given for this, including a fractured opposition and the fact that the government had already co-opted many of the political positions that might have united the opposition (such as a perceived pro-European and anti-Russian stance). Also the elections themselves were declared fairer in the OSCE election monitoring reports than had been the case in other countries where similar revolutions occurred, even though the CIS monitoring mission strongly condemned them.
There was civil unrest
all over Moldova following the 2009 Parliamentary election due to the opposition claiming that the communists had fixed the election. Eventually, the Alliance for European Integration
created a governing coalition that pushed the Communist party into opposition.
and calling for fresh elections. One of the chants heard in that protest was "Let's congratulate our Kyrgyz brothers for their revolutionary spirit. Let's free Mongolia of corruption."
An uprising commenced in Ulan Bator on 1 July 2008 with a peaceful meeting in protest of the election of 29 June results corrupted (as claimed the opposition political parties) by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
(MPRP). Approximately 30,000 people took part in the meeting. After the meeting was over a part of protesters left the central square and moved to the building of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, attacked and next burned this building. A police station also was attacked. By the night rioters set fire to the Cultural Palace, where a theatre, museum and National art gallery were vandalised and burned. Cars torching, bank robberies and looting were reported. The organisations in the burning buildings were vandalised and looted. Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon against stone-throwing protesters. A 4-day state of emergency was installed, the capital has been placed under a 2200 to 0800 curfew, and alcohol sales banned, rioting not resumed. 5 people were shot dead by the police, dozens of teenagers were wounded from the police firearms and disabled and 800 people, including the leaders of the civil movements J. Batzandan, O. Magnai and B. Jargalsakhan, were arrested. International observers said 1 July general election was free and fair.
started in Pakistan
with the aim of restoration of depost judges. However, within a month the movement took a turn and started working towards the goal of removing Pervez Musharraf
from power.
youth movement. Oborona claims that its aim is to provide free and honest elections and to establish in Russia a system with democratic political competition. This movement is one of the most active and radical ones and is represented in a number of Russian cities.
The opposition in the Republic
of Bashkortostan
has held protests demanding that the federal authorities intervene to dismiss Murtaza Rakhimov
from his position as president of the republic, accusing him of leading an "arbitrary, corrupt, and violent" regime. Airat Dilmukhametov, one of the opposition leaders, and leader of the Bashkir National Front, has said that the opposition movement has been inspired from the mass protests of Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Another opposition leader, Marat Khaiyirulin, has said that if an Orange Revolution were to happen in Russia, it would begin in Bashkortostan.
, there has been longstanding opposition to President Islam Karimov, from liberals and Islamists. Following protests in 2005, security forces in Uzbekistan carried out the Andijan massacre
that successfully halted country-wide demonstrations. These protests otherwise could have turned into colour revolution, according to many analysts.
The revolution in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan began in the largely ethnic Uzbek south, and received early support in the city of Osh
. Nigora Hidoyatova, leader of the Free Peasants opposition party, has referred to the idea of a peasant revolt or 'Cotton Revolution'. She also said that her party is collaborating with the youth organisation Shiddat, and that she hopes it can evolve to an organisation similar to Kmara or Pora. Other nascent youth organisations in and for Uzbekistan include Bolga and the freeuzbek group.
Uzbekistan has also had an active Islamist movement, led by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
, most notable for the 1999 Tashkent bombings
, though the group was largely destroyed following the 2001 NATO invasion of Afghanistan.
".
When groups of young people protested the closure of Venezuela's RCTV
television station in June 2007, president Hugo Chavez
said that he believed the protests were organised by the West in an attempt to promote a "soft coup" like the revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia.
In July 2007, Iranian state television released footage of two Iranian-American prisoners, both of whom work for western NGOs, as part of a documentary called "In the Name of Democracy." The documentary purportedly discusses the colour revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia and accuses the United States of attempting to foment a similar ouster in Iran.
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
(former USSR) and Balkan states during the early 2000s. The term has also been applied to a number of revolutions elsewhere, including in the Middle East. Some observers have called the events a revolutionary wave
Revolutionary wave
A revolutionary wave is a series of revolutions occurring in various locations in a similar time period. In many cases, an initial revolution inspires other "affiliate revolutions" with similar aims....
, the origins of which can be traced back to the 1986 People Power Revolution (also known as the "Yellow Revolution") in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
Participants in the colour revolutions have mostly used nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence. It is largely synonymous with civil resistance...
, also called civil resistance
Civil resistance
The term civil resistance, alongside the term nonviolent resistance, is used to describe political action that relies on the use of non-violent methods by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and...
. Such methods as demonstrations, strikes and interventions have been intended protest against governments seen as corrupt and/or authoritarian, and to advocate democracy; and they have also created strong pressure for change. These movements generally adopted a specific colour or flower as their symbol. The colour revolutions are notable for the important role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and particularly student activists
Student activism
Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding...
in organising creative non-violent resistance.
Such movements have had a measure of success, as for example in Serbia's Bulldozer Revolution (2000); in Georgia's Rose Revolution
Rose Revolution
The "Revolution of Roses" was a change of power in Georgia in November 2003, which took place after having widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections...
(2003); and in Ukraine's Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
(2004). In most but not all cases, massive street protests followed disputed elections, or requests for fair elections, and led to the resignation or overthrow of leaders considered by their opponents to be authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
. Some events have been called "colour revolutions" but are different from the above cases in certain basic characteristics. Examples include Lebanon's Cedar Revolution
Cedar Revolution
The Cedar Revolution or Independence Intifada was a chain of demonstrations in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.The primary goals of the original activists were the...
(2005); and Kuwait's Blue Revolution (2005).
Philippines
The 1986 People Power Revolution, or the "Yellow Revolution", in the PhilippinesPhilippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
was the first successful peaceful revolution in the contemporary period. It was a series of peaceful demonstration from 1983-1986, attempting to topple an American supported dictator. It inspired the Revolutions of 1989
Revolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...
which actually led to the collapse of Communist Europe.
Yugoslavia
- The 'Bulldozer revolution' in 2000, which led to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević. These demonstrations are usually considered to be the first example of the peaceful revolutions which followed. However, the Serbians adopted an approach that had already been used in parliamentary elections in Bulgaria (1997)Bulgarian parliamentary election, 1997Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 19 April 1997. The result was a victory for the United Democratic Forces , which won 137 of the 240 seats. Voter turnout was 62.9%...
, Slovakia (1998)Slovak parliamentary election, 1998The 1998 parliamentary elections in Slovakia took place on 25 and 26 September 1998. Elections are regarded as a pivotal point in Slovak history after the fall of communism by bringing the government of Vladimír Mečiar to end.- Results :...
and Croatia (2000)Croatian parliamentary election, 2000Elections for the Chamber of Representatives of the Croatian Parliament were held on January 3, 2000. These were the first elections to be held after the expiration of a full term of the previous Chamber....
, characterised by civic mobilisation through get-out-the-vote campaigns and unification of the political opposition. The nationwide protesters did not adopt a colour or a specific symbol; however, the slogan "Gotov jeGotov jeGotov je! was a campaign created by Otpor! , a Serbian based student group formed in 1998, as the key symbol for the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on October 5, 2000....
" (Serbian Cyrillic: Готов је, English: He is finished) did become an aftermath symbol celebrating the completion of the task. Despite the commonalities, many others refer to Georgia as the most definite beginning of the series of "colour revolutions". The demonstrations were supported by the youth movement OtporOtporOtpor! was a civic youth movement that existed as such from 1998 until 2003 in Serbia , employing nonviolent struggle against the regime of Slobodan Milošević as their course of action. In the course of two-year nonviolent struggle against Milosevic, Otpor spread across Serbia and attracted more...
, some of whose members were involved in the later revolutions in other countries.
Former USSR states
- The Rose RevolutionRose RevolutionThe "Revolution of Roses" was a change of power in Georgia in November 2003, which took place after having widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections...
in Georgia, following the disputed 2003 electionGeorgia legislative election, 2003Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of Georgia on November 2, 2003. According to statistics released by the Georgian Election Commission, the elections were won by a combination of parties supporting President Eduard Shevardnadze....
, led to the overthrow of Eduard ShevardnadzeEduard ShevardnadzeEduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...
and replacing him with Mikhail Saakashvili after new electionsGeorgia legislative election, 2004Legislative elections were held in the Georgia on March 28, 2004. The elections followed the annulment of the November 2003 legislative elections, which were widely believed to have been rigged by the former President, Eduard Shevardnadze...
were held in March 2004. The Rose Revolution was supported by the KmaraKmaraKmara is a civic resistance movement in the republic of Georgia which undermined the government of Eduard Shevardnadze. After international observers condemned his government's conduct of the November 2003 parliamentary elections, Kmara led the protests which precipitated his downfall in what...
civic resistance movement. - The Orange RevolutionOrange RevolutionThe Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
in Ukraine followed the disputed second round of the Ukrainian presidential election, 2004Ukrainian presidential election, 2004The Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 was held on October 31, November 21 and December 26, 2004. The election was the fourth presidential election to take place in Ukraine following independence from the Soviet Union...
, leading to the annulment of the result and the repeat of the round – Leader of the Opposition Viktor YushchenkoViktor YushchenkoViktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
was declared President, defeating Viktor YanukovychViktor YanukovychViktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a Ukrainian politician who has been the President of Ukraine since February 2010.Yanukovych served as the Governor of Donetsk Oblast from 1997 to 2002...
. The Orange Revolution was supported by PoraPoraPORA! , meaning IT'S TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization and political party in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy...
. - The Tulip RevolutionTulip RevolutionThe Tulip Revolution or First Kyrgyz Revolution refers to the overthrow of President Askar Akayev and his government in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan after the parliamentary elections of February 27 and of March 13, 2005...
in Kyrgyzstan (also sometimes called the "Pink Revolution") was more violent than its predecessors and followed the disputed Kyrgyz parliamentary election, 2005. At the same time, it was more fragmented than previous "colour" revolutions. The protesters in different areas adopted the colours pink and yellow for their protests. This revolution was supported by youth resistance movement KelKelKelKelKelKel is a youth movement in Kyrgyzstan that gained some prominence during the Tulip Revolution of March 2005 that culminated in the ousting of President Askar Akayev. Translated from the Kyrgyz language, KelKel means "renaissance and shining of the good"....
.
Related usages in the Middle East
The following events, having taken place in the Middle East instead of post-Communist Europe and Central Asia, have nonetheless at times been described as part of the series of colour revolutions, and their popular names designed specifically to draw the parallel. Nonetheless they have marked differences with the revolutions described above, and thus their inclusion in the series of "colour revolutions" is so far not universally accepted.- The Cedar RevolutionCedar RevolutionThe Cedar Revolution or Independence Intifada was a chain of demonstrations in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.The primary goals of the original activists were the...
in Lebanon between February and April 2005 followed not a disputed election, but rather the assassination of opposition leader Rafik HaririRafik HaririRafic Baha El Deen Al-Hariri , was a business tycoon and the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation, 20 October 2004.He headed five cabinets during his tenure...
in 2005. Also, instead of the annulment of an election, the people demanded an end to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Nonetheless, some of its elements and some of the methods used in the protests have been similar enough that it is often considered and treated by the press and commentators as one of the series of "colour revolutions". The Cedar of LebanonLebanon CedarCedrus libani is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Mediterranean region.There are two distinct types that are considered to be different subspecies or varieties. Lebanon cedar or Cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Mediterranean...
is the symbol of the country, and the revolution was named after it. The peaceful demonstrators used the colours white and red, which are found in the Lebanese flag. The protests led to the pullout of SyriaPolitics of SyriaPolitics in the Syrian Arab Republic takes place in the framework of what is officially a parliamentary republic, but what is considered an authoritarian government where the power is in the hands of the President of Syria, his family, the ruling Ba'ath Party, and the Alawi sect.The two presidents...
n troops in April 2005, ending their nearly 30-year presence there, although Syria retains some influence in Lebanon. - Blue Revolution was a term used by some Kuwaitis to refer to demonstrations in KuwaitPolitics of KuwaitThe government of Kuwait consists of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, whereby the Emir is the head of government. The State of Kuwait has been ruled by the al-Sabah dynasty since approximately 1752. The constitution, approved and promulgated on November 11, 1962, calls for direct elections...
in support of women's suffrageWomen's suffrageWomen's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
beginning in March 2005; it was named after the colour of the signs the protesters used. In May of that year the Kuwaiti government acceded to their demands, granting women the right to vote beginning in the 2007 parliamentary elections. Since there was no call for regime change, the so-called "blue revolution" cannot be categorised as a true colour revolution. - "Purple RevolutionPurple RevolutionPurple Revolution is a term that some have given to the end of Saddam Hussein's governance in Iraq and the coming of democracy to the nation. The name is after the color revolutions trend of democratic revolutionary movements in authoritarian states—the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange...
" was a name first used by some hopeful commentators and later picked up by United States President George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to describe the coming of democracy to Iraq following the 2005 Iraqi legislative election and was intentionally used to draw the parallel with the Orange and Rose revolutions. However, the name "purple revolution" has not achieved widespread use in Iraq, the United States or elsewhere. The name comes from the colour that voters' index fingers were stained to prevent fraudulent multiple voting. - Green Revolution is a term widely used to describe the Iranian election protests. The protests began in 2009, several years after the main wave of colour revolutions, although like them it began due to a disputed election, the 2009 Iranian presidential electionIranian presidential election, 2009Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election...
. Protesters adopted the colour green as their symbol because it had been the campaign colour of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein MousaviMir-Hossein MousaviMir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh is an Iranian reformist politician, artist and architect who served as the seventy-ninth and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He was a Reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election and eventually the leader of the opposition in the post-election...
, whom many protesters thought had won the elections. However Mousavi failed to show any credible evidence that he had won the election. - Jasmine Revolution is a widely used term for the 2010-2011 Tunisian protests. The Jasmine Revolution led to the exit of President Ben AliZine El Abidine Ben AliZine El Abidine Ben Ali is a Tunisian political figure who was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was...
from office and the beginning of the 2010–2011 Arab world protests. - Lotus Revolution is a term currently used by various western news sources to describe the protests in Egypt that forced President Mubarak to step down in 2011 as part of the 2010–2011 Arab world protests, which followed the Jasmine Revolution of Tunisia. Lotus is known as the flower representing resurrection, life and the sun of ancient Egypt. It is uncertain who gave the name, while columnist of Arabic press, Asharq Alawsat, and prominent Egyptian opposition leader Saad Eddin Ibrahim claimed to name it the Lotus Revolution. Lotus Revolution later became common on western news source such as CNN. Other names, such as White Revolution and Nile Revolution, are used but are minor terms compare to Lotus Revolution. the term Lotus Revolution is rarely, if ever, used in the Arab world. .
The terms 'Lotus' and 'Jasmine' Revolution are commonly perceived in the Arab world as Western attempts to orientalise and take nominal ownership over actions very far removed from them, and are indicative of an inherently orientalising tendency to fixate on exotic, sensual items that have no relevancy to actual events.
Anti-Communist revolutions
Many have cited the influence of the series of revolutionsRevolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...
which occurred in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly the Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
in 1989. A peaceful demonstration by students (mostly from Charles University) was attacked by the police – and in time contributed to the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Yet the roots of the pacifist floral imagery may go even further back to the non-violent Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
of Portugal in the mid 1970s, which is associated with the color carnation because carnation
Carnation
Dianthus caryophyllus is a species of Dianthus. It is probably native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years. It is the wild ancestor of the garden carnation.It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 80 cm tall...
s were worn, and the 1986 Yellow Revolution in the Philippines where demonstrators offered peace flowers to military personnel manning armoured tanks.
Student movements
The first of these was OtporOtpor
Otpor! was a civic youth movement that existed as such from 1998 until 2003 in Serbia , employing nonviolent struggle against the regime of Slobodan Milošević as their course of action. In the course of two-year nonviolent struggle against Milosevic, Otpor spread across Serbia and attracted more...
("Resistance") in Serbia, which was founded at Belgrade University in October 1998 and began protesting against Miloševic' during the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
. Many of its members were arrested or beaten by the police. Despite this, during the presidential campaign in September 2000, Otpor launched its "Gotov je
Gotov je
Gotov je! was a campaign created by Otpor! , a Serbian based student group formed in 1998, as the key symbol for the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on October 5, 2000....
" (He's finished) campaign that galvanised Serbian discontent with Miloševic' and resulted in his defeat.
Members of Otpor have inspired and trained members of related student movements including Kmara
Kmara
Kmara is a civic resistance movement in the republic of Georgia which undermined the government of Eduard Shevardnadze. After international observers condemned his government's conduct of the November 2003 parliamentary elections, Kmara led the protests which precipitated his downfall in what...
in Georgia, Pora in Ukraine, Zubr
Zubr (political organization)
Zubr was a civic youth organization in Belarus backed by the United States and western powers in opposition to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The organization drew inspiration from Otpor student movement which contributed to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, and from Gene Sharp's...
in Belarus and MJAFT!
MJAFT!
MJAFT! is a non governmental organisation in Albania that aims to raise awareness of the many political and social problems facing Albania. MJAFT! grew out of a grassroots effort by students and other volunteers. The organisation is partly funded by the U.S...
in Albania. These groups have been explicit and scrupulous in their practice of non-violent resistance as advocated and explained in Gene Sharp
Gene Sharp
Gene Sharp is Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He is known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world.-Biography:Sharp was born in Ohio, the son of an...
's writings. The massive protests that they have organised, which were essential to the successes in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine, have been notable for their colourfulness and use of ridiculing humor in opposing authoritarian leaders.
Soros foundation and U.S. influence
Opponents of the colour revolutions often accuse the Soros FoundationSoros Foundation
A Soros Foundation is one of a network of national foundations, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, which fund volunteer socio-political activity, created by George Soros, international financier and self-proclaimed philanthropist, and coordinated since early 1994 by a management team called the...
and/or the United States government of supporting and even planning the revolutions in order to serve Western geopolitical interests. It is noteworthy that after the Orange Revolution several Central Asian nations took action against the Open Society Institute
Open Society Institute
The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...
of George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
with various means – Uzbekistan
Politics of Uzbekistan
The politics of Uzbekistan take place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Uzbekistan is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament,...
, for example, forced the shutting down of the OSI regional offices, while Tajik
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
state-controlled media have accused OSI-Tajikistan of corruption and nepotism.
Evidence suggesting U.S. government involvement includes the USAID (and UNDP) supported Internet structures called Freenet
Freenet (Central Asia)
Several Internet networks in Central Asia, specifically, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are financed by USAID and other USA governmental authorities and are called Freenet...
, which are known to comprise a major part of the Internet structure in at least one of the countries – Kyrgyzstan – in which one of the colour revolutions occurred.
The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
claimed that USAID, National Endowment for Democracy
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
, the International Republican Institute
International Republican Institute
Founded in 1983, the International Republican Institute is an organization, funded by the United States government, that conducts international political programs, sometimes labeled 'democratization programs'....
, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs is an organization created by the United States government by way of the National Endowment for Democracy to channel grants for furthering democracy in developing nations. It was founded in 1983, shortly after the U.S. Congress created...
, and Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
are directly involved; the Washington Post and the New York Times also reported substantial Western involvement in some of these events.
Activists from Otpor
Otpor
Otpor! was a civic youth movement that existed as such from 1998 until 2003 in Serbia , employing nonviolent struggle against the regime of Slobodan Milošević as their course of action. In the course of two-year nonviolent struggle against Milosevic, Otpor spread across Serbia and attracted more...
in Serbia and Pora
Pora
PORA! , meaning IT'S TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization and political party in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy...
in Ukraine have said that publications and training they received from the US based Albert Einstein Institution
Albert Einstein Institution
The Albert Einstein Institution is a non-profit organization that specializes in the study of the methods of non-violent resistance in conflicts and to explore its policy potential and communicate these findings through print and other media, translations, conferences, consultations, and workshops...
staff have been instrumental in the formation of their strategies.
Armenia
Aram KarapetyanAram Karapetyan
Aram Karapetyan is an Armenian politician. In 1985 Karapetyan graduated form Yerevan Polytechnic Institute. He also worked in the Russian State Duma, the Duma Council for National Security, and the upper chamber of Russia's Federal Assembly...
, leader of the New Times political party in Armenia
Politics of Armenia
Politics of Armenia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the head of government, and of a platform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government...
, has declared his intention to start a "revolution from below" in April 2005, saying that the situation was different now that people had seen the developments in the CIS
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
. He added that the Armenian revolution will be peaceful but not have a colour.
Azerbaijan
A number of movements were created in AzerbaijanPolitics of Azerbaijan
The Politics of Azerbaijan take place in a framework of a presidential republic, with the President of Azerbaijan as the head of state, and the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan as head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and...
in mid-2005, inspired by the examples of both Georgia and Ukraine. A youth group, calling itself Yox!
Yox!
YOX! is a nonviolent pro-democracy youth movement in Azerbaijan, which models itself after other colour revolutional youth groups Otpor, Kmara, Pora, Zubr, and KelKel. It means No! in Azeri....
(which means No!), declared its opposition to governmental corruption. The leader of Yox! said that unlike Pora or Kmara
Kmara
Kmara is a civic resistance movement in the republic of Georgia which undermined the government of Eduard Shevardnadze. After international observers condemned his government's conduct of the November 2003 parliamentary elections, Kmara led the protests which precipitated his downfall in what...
, he wants to change not just the leadership, but the entire system of governance in Azerbaijan. The Yox movement chose green as its colour.
The spearhead of Azerbaijan's attempted colour revolution was Yeni Fekir ("New Idea"), a youth group closely aligned with the Azadlig (Freedom) Bloc of opposition political parties. Along with groups such as Magam ("It's Time") and Dalga ("Wave"), Yeni Fekir deliberately adopted many of the tactics of the Georgian and Ukrainian colour revolution groups, even borrowing the colour orange from
the Ukrainian revolution.
In November 2005 protesters took to the streets, waving orange flags and banners, to protest what they considered government fraud in recent parliamentary elections. The Azerbaijani colour revolution finally fizzled out with the police riot on 26 November, during which dozens of protesters were injured and perhaps hundreds teargassed and sprayed with water cannons.
Belarus
In BelarusPolitics of Belarus
The politics of Belarus takes place in a framework of a presidential republic, where by the President of Belarus is the head of state. Executive power is exercised by the government, in its top sits a prime minister, appointed by the President...
, there have been a number of protests against President Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has been serving as the President of Belarus since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm. Under Lukashenko's rule, Belarus has come to be viewed as a state whose conduct is out of line...
, with participation from student group Zubr
Zubr (political organization)
Zubr was a civic youth organization in Belarus backed by the United States and western powers in opposition to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The organization drew inspiration from Otpor student movement which contributed to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, and from Gene Sharp's...
. One round of protests culminated on 25 March 2005; it was a self-declared attempt to emulate the Kyrgyzstan revolution, and involved over a thousand citizens. However, police severely suppressed it, arresting over 30 people and imprisoning opposition leader Mikhail Marinich.
A second, much larger, round of protests began almost a year later, on 19 March 2006, soon after the presidential election
Belarusian presidential election, 2006
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 19 March 2006. The result was a victory for incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, who received 84.4% of the vote. However, western observers deemed the elections rigged...
. Official results had Lukashenko winning with 83% of the vote; protesters claimed the results were achieved through fraud and voter intimidation, a charge echoed by many foreign governments. Protesters camped out in October Square in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
over the next week, calling variously for the resignation of Lukashenko, the installation of rival candidate Alaksandar Milinkievič
Alaksandar Milinkievic
Aliaksandr Uładzimiravič Milinkevič is a Belarusian politician. He was nominated by the leading opposition parties in Belarus to run against incumbent Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential election on 19 March 2006.-Biography:...
, and new, fair elections.
The opposition originally used as a symbol the white-red-white former flag of Belarus
Flag of Belarus
The current national flag of Belarus was formally adopted on June 7, 1995, following the result of a referendum voted on by the Belarusian people in the previous month. This new design replaced a historical flag used by the Belarusian People's Republic of 1918, before Belarus became a Soviet...
; the movement has had significant connections with that in neighbouring Ukraine, and during the Orange Revolution some white-red-white flags were seen being waved in Kiev. During the 2006 protests some called it the "Jeans Revolution
Jeans Revolution
The Jeans Revolution was a term used by the democratic opposition in Belarus and their supporters in the West to describe their effort and aspirations as regarding democratic changes in Belarus at the presidential elections of 2006...
" or "Denim Revolution", blue jeans being considered a symbol for freedom. Some protesters cut up jeans into ribbons and hung them in public places. It is claimed that Zubr was responsible for coining the phrase.
Lukashenko has said in the past: "In our country, there will be no pink or orange, or even banana revolution." More recently he's said "They [the West] think that Belarus is ready for some 'orange' or, what is a rather frightening option, 'blue' or 'cornflower blue
Cornflower blue
Cornflower blue, a shade of azure, is a shade of light blue with relatively little green compared to blue. This color was one of the favorites of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, the other being yellow....
' revolution. Such 'blue' revolutions are the last thing we need". On 19 April 2005, he further commented: "All these coloured revolutions are pure and simple banditry."
Burma
The 2007 Burmese anti-government protests2007 Burmese anti-government protests
The 2007 Burmese anti-government protests were a series of anti-government protests that started in Burma on 15 August 2007...
were referred to in the press as the Saffron Revolution after Buddhist monks (Theravada Buddhist monks normally wear the color saffron) took the vanguard of the protests. A previous, student-led revolution, the 8888 Uprising
8888 Uprising
The 8888 Nationwide Popular Pro-Democracy Protests was a series of marches, demonstrations, protests, and riots in the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma...
on 8 August 1988, had similarities to the colour revolutions, but was violently repressed.
China
A call which first appeared on 17 February 2011 on the Chinese language site Boxun.comBoxun.com
Boxun.com is an overseas Chinese community website created by Meicun "Watson" Meng, who studied in the United States after working for two multinational companies in China. Boxun covers international political news and human rights abuses in the People's Republic of China, among other topics...
in the United States for a "Jasmine revolution" in the People's Republic of China and repeated on social networking sites in China resulted in blocking of internet searches for "jasmine" and a heavy police presence at designated sites for protest such as the McDonald's in central Beijing, one of the 13 designated protest sites, on 20 February 2011. A crowd did gather there, but their motivations were ambiguous as a crowd tends to draw a crowd in that area. Boxun experienced a denial of service attack during this period and was inaccessible.
Moldova
The opposition is reported to have hoped for and urged some kind of Orange revolution, similar to that in Ukraine, in the follow-up of the Moldovan parliamentary elections, 2005Moldovan parliamentary elections, 2005
Moldovan parliamentary elections took place on March 6, 2005. Turnout was 63.7 percent.- Election outcome :As a result of the 2005 parliamentary elections, the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova gained 56 seats in the 101-member Parliament - more than the minimum 51 seats required to...
, while the Christian Democratic People's Party
Christian-Democratic People's Party (Moldova)
The Christian Democratic People's Party is a Christian democratic political party in Moldova. In the last legislative elections on March 6, 2005, the party won 9.1% of the popular vote and 11 out of 101 seats. Led by Iurie Roşca, the CDPP and the liberal PNL are the only major political parties in...
adopted orange for its colour in a clear reference to the events of Ukraine.
A name hypothesised for such an event was "grape revolution" because of the abundance of vineyards in the country; however, such a revolution failed to materialise after the governmental victory in the elections. Many reasons have been given for this, including a fractured opposition and the fact that the government had already co-opted many of the political positions that might have united the opposition (such as a perceived pro-European and anti-Russian stance). Also the elections themselves were declared fairer in the OSCE election monitoring reports than had been the case in other countries where similar revolutions occurred, even though the CIS monitoring mission strongly condemned them.
There was civil unrest
2009 Moldova civil unrest
The 2009 civil unrest in Moldova began on April 7, 2009, in major cities of Moldova before the results of the 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election were announced...
all over Moldova following the 2009 Parliamentary election due to the opposition claiming that the communists had fixed the election. Eventually, the Alliance for European Integration
Alliance for European Integration
The Alliance for European Integration is the ruling coalition in Moldova since the July 2009 election.-Overall context :After April 2009 election and the civil unrest, the climate in Moldova became very polarised. The parliament failed to elect a new president. For this reason, the parliament was...
created a governing coalition that pushed the Communist party into opposition.
Mongolia
On 25 March 2005, activists wearing yellow scarves held protests in the capital city of Ulan Bator, disputing the results of the 2004 Mongolian parliamentary electionsMongolian legislative election, 2004
Parliamentary elections for the State Great Khural in Mongolia took place on 27 June and 17 July 2004. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party emerged as the largest party, but failed to win a parliamentary majority.-Results:...
and calling for fresh elections. One of the chants heard in that protest was "Let's congratulate our Kyrgyz brothers for their revolutionary spirit. Let's free Mongolia of corruption."
An uprising commenced in Ulan Bator on 1 July 2008 with a peaceful meeting in protest of the election of 29 June results corrupted (as claimed the opposition political parties) by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
The Mongolian People's Party formerly the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party is an ex-communist political party in Mongolia. The party is abbreviated MPP in English and ' in Mongolian...
(MPRP). Approximately 30,000 people took part in the meeting. After the meeting was over a part of protesters left the central square and moved to the building of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, attacked and next burned this building. A police station also was attacked. By the night rioters set fire to the Cultural Palace, where a theatre, museum and National art gallery were vandalised and burned. Cars torching, bank robberies and looting were reported. The organisations in the burning buildings were vandalised and looted. Police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon against stone-throwing protesters. A 4-day state of emergency was installed, the capital has been placed under a 2200 to 0800 curfew, and alcohol sales banned, rioting not resumed. 5 people were shot dead by the police, dozens of teenagers were wounded from the police firearms and disabled and 800 people, including the leaders of the civil movements J. Batzandan, O. Magnai and B. Jargalsakhan, were arrested. International observers said 1 July general election was free and fair.
Pakistan
In 2007 the Lawyers' MovementLawyers' Movement
The Lawyers' Movement was the name given to the popular mass protest movement started by the lawyers of Pakistan in response to the dictatorial actions of 9 March 2007, by the country's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, when he unconstitutionally sacked Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Chief...
started in Pakistan
Politics of Pakistan
Politics of Pakistan have taken place in the framework of a federal republic, where the system of government has at times been parliamentary, presidential, or semi-presidential. In the current parliamentary system, the President of Pakistan is the largely ceremonial head of state, the Prime...
with the aim of restoration of depost judges. However, within a month the movement took a turn and started working towards the goal of removing Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
from power.
Russia
The liberal opposition in Russia is represented by several parties and movements, the most remarkable of which is OboronaOborona
Oborona is a non-partisan civic youth movement in Russia. Its name means "Defense [from]" in Russian. The movement was established in 2005 and has no leader or centralized structure. Instead, it is based on the network principle and mostly horizontal relations.The movement opposes what they call...
youth movement. Oborona claims that its aim is to provide free and honest elections and to establish in Russia a system with democratic political competition. This movement is one of the most active and radical ones and is represented in a number of Russian cities.
The opposition in the Republic
Republics of Russia
The Russian Federation is divided into 83 federal subjects , 21 of which are republics. The republics represent areas of non-Russian ethnicity. The indigenous ethnic group of a republic that gives it its name is referred to as the "titular nationality"...
of Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan
The Republic of Bashkortostan , also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia . It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa...
has held protests demanding that the federal authorities intervene to dismiss Murtaza Rakhimov
Murtaza Rakhimov
Murtaza Gubaydullovich Rakhimov is a Russian politician of Bashkir ethnicity, who served as the first President of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia.- Biography :...
from his position as president of the republic, accusing him of leading an "arbitrary, corrupt, and violent" regime. Airat Dilmukhametov, one of the opposition leaders, and leader of the Bashkir National Front, has said that the opposition movement has been inspired from the mass protests of Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Another opposition leader, Marat Khaiyirulin, has said that if an Orange Revolution were to happen in Russia, it would begin in Bashkortostan.
Uzbekistan
In UzbekistanPolitics of Uzbekistan
The politics of Uzbekistan take place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Uzbekistan is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament,...
, there has been longstanding opposition to President Islam Karimov, from liberals and Islamists. Following protests in 2005, security forces in Uzbekistan carried out the Andijan massacre
Andijan massacre
The Andijan massacre occurred when Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops fired into a crowd of protesters in Andijan, Uzbekistan on 13 May 2005. Estimates of those killed on 13 May range from between 187, the official count of the government, and 5,000 people, with most...
that successfully halted country-wide demonstrations. These protests otherwise could have turned into colour revolution, according to many analysts.
The revolution in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan began in the largely ethnic Uzbek south, and received early support in the city of Osh
Osh
Osh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". The city is at least 3,000 years old, and has served as the administrative center of Osh Province since 1939...
. Nigora Hidoyatova, leader of the Free Peasants opposition party, has referred to the idea of a peasant revolt or 'Cotton Revolution'. She also said that her party is collaborating with the youth organisation Shiddat, and that she hopes it can evolve to an organisation similar to Kmara or Pora. Other nascent youth organisations in and for Uzbekistan include Bolga and the freeuzbek group.
Uzbekistan has also had an active Islamist movement, led by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani—both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley...
, most notable for the 1999 Tashkent bombings
1999 Tashkent bombings
The 1999 Tashkent bombings occurred on 16 February when six explosives exploded in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. The bombs exploded over the course of an hour and a half, and targeted multiple government buildings. Though six explosives were detonated, it is believed that five were a...
, though the group was largely destroyed following the 2001 NATO invasion of Afghanistan.
Backlash in non-CIS countries
In 2005, in Lebanon there was a "Cedar RevolutionCedar Revolution
The Cedar Revolution or Independence Intifada was a chain of demonstrations in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.The primary goals of the original activists were the...
".
When groups of young people protested the closure of Venezuela's RCTV
RCTV
Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional is a Venezuelan cable television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, RCTV Internacional was inaugurated as Radio Caracas Televisión on 15 November...
television station in June 2007, president Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
said that he believed the protests were organised by the West in an attempt to promote a "soft coup" like the revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia.
In July 2007, Iranian state television released footage of two Iranian-American prisoners, both of whom work for western NGOs, as part of a documentary called "In the Name of Democracy." The documentary purportedly discusses the colour revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia and accuses the United States of attempting to foment a similar ouster in Iran.
See also
- Civil resistanceCivil resistanceThe term civil resistance, alongside the term nonviolent resistance, is used to describe political action that relies on the use of non-violent methods by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and...
- Non-violent revolutionNon-violent revolutionA nonviolent revolution is a revolution using mostly campaigns of civil resistance, including various forms of nonviolent protest, to bring about the departure of governments seen as entrenched and authoritarian...
- Non-violent resistance
- 2010–2011 Tunisian uprising, referred to by some commentators as the "Jasmine Revolution"
Further reading
- Mark R. Beissinger, Structure and Example in Modular Political Phenomena: The Diffusion of Bulldozer/Rose/Orange/Tulip Revolutions, Perspectives on Politics 5 (2007): 259–276.
- Pavol Demes and Joerg Forbrig (eds.). Reclaiming Democracy: Civil Society and Electoral Change in Central and Eastern Europe. German Marshall Fund, 2007.
- Joerg Fobrig (Hrsg.): Revisiting Youth Political Participation: Challenges for research and democratic practice in Europe. Council of Europe, Publishing Division, Strasbourg 2005, ISBN 92-871-5654-9
- Adam RobertsAdam Roberts (scholar)Sir Adam Roberts, KCMG, FBA is President of the British Academy , the UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences...
and Timothy Garton AshTimothy Garton AshTimothy Garton Ash is a British historian, author and commentator. He is currently serving as Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe...
(eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-955201-6. US edition. On Google - Kurt Schock: Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies. University of Minnesota Press, 2005.
- Joshua A. Tucker: Enough! Electoral Fraud, Collective Action Problems, and Post-Communist coloured Revolutions. 2007. Perspectives on Politics, 5(3): 537–553.
- Akbar E. Torbat,The Arab Uprisings and Iran’s Green Movement, October 19, 2011.
External links
- The Centre for Democracy in Lebanon
- Central Asian Backlash Against US Franchised Revolutions Written by K. Gajendra Singh, India's former ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan from 1992–1996.
- "Sowing seeds of democracy in post-soviet granite" – the future of democracy in post-Soviet states Written by Lauren Brodsky, a PhD candidate at the Fletcher School in Medford, Mass., focusing on US public diplomacy and the regions of Southwest and Central Asia.
- United 4 Belarus Campaign British campaign website drawing attention to the political situation in Belarus ahead of 2006 presidential electionsElections in BelarusBelarus elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people. The National Assembly has two chambers...
. - Michael Barker, Regulating revolutions in Eastern Europe: Polyarchy and the National Endowment for Democracy, 1 November 2006.
- How Orange Networks Work
- Albert Einstein Institution, East Boston, Massachusetts
- Howard Clark civil resistance website
- International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), Washington DC
- ICNC’s Online Learning Platform for the Study & Teaching of Civil Resistance, Washington DC
- Jack DuVall, "Civil resistance and the language of power", 19 November 2010 at openDemocracy.net
- Hardy Merriman, The trifecta of civil resistance: unity, planning, discipline, 19 November 2010 at openDemocracy.net
- Oxford University Research Project on Civil Resistance and Power Politics
- Stellan Vinthagen, People power and the new global ferment, 15 November 2010 at openDemocracy.net