Colour revolution

Colour revolution (sometimes coloured revolution) is a term used since early 2000s primarily to describe a series of nonviolent protests and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government that took place in post-Soviet states (particularly Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan) and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The aim of the colour revolutions was to establish Western-style liberal democracy in those countries and eliminate corruption. They were primarily triggered by the election results widely viewed as falsified. The colour revolutions were marked by the usage of the internet as a method of communication, as well as the strong role of non-governmental organizations in the protests. Some of these movements have been successful in their goal of removing the government, such as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Bulldozer Revolution (2000), Georgia's Rose Revolution (2003), Ukraine's Orange Revolution (2004) and Kyrgyzstan's Tulip Revolution (2005). They have been described by political scientists Valerie Jane Bunce and Seva Gunitsky as a "wave of democracy," between the Revolutions of 1989 and the 2010–2012 Arab Spring. The role of the United States in the colour revolutions has been a subject of significant controversy, and critics have accused the United States of orchestrating these revolutions to expand its influence. Critics of these movements share the view that colour revolutions are the "product of machinations by the United States and other Western powers" and constitute unlawful interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. "Colour revolution" has also been used as a pejorative term to refer to protests, which opponents may feel that foreign nations unduly influence. The first of these was Otpor! ('Resistance!') in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, founded at Belgrade University in October 1998 and began protesting against Miloševic during the Kosovo War. Most of them were already veterans of anti-Milošević demonstrations such as the 1996–97 protests and the 9 March 1991 protest.

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Related concepts (16)

Tulip Revolution

The Tulip Revolution or First Kyrgyz Revolution (Тюльпановая революция; Жоогазын революциясы) led to President of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev's fall from power. The revolution began after parliamentary elections on February 27 and March 13, 2005. The revolutionaries alleged corruption and authoritarianism by Akayev, his family and supporters. Akayev fled to Kazakhstan and then to Russia. On April 4, 2005, at the Kyrgyz embassy in Moscow, Akayev signed his resignation statement in the presence of a Kyrgyz parliamentary delegation.

Nonviolent resistance

Nonviolent resistance, or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, constructive program, or other methods, while refraining from violence and the threat of violence. This type of action highlights the desires of an individual or group that feels that something needs to change to improve the current condition of the resisting person or group.

Otpor

Otpor (Отпор!, Resistance!, stylized as Otpor!) was a political organization in Serbia (then part of FR Yugoslavia) from 1998 until 2004. In its initial period from 1998 to 2000, Otpor began as a civic protest group, eventually turning into a movement, which adopted the Narodni pokret (the People's Movement) title, against the policies of the Serbian authorities under the influence of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević. Following Milošević's overthrow in October 2000, Otpor became a political watchdog organization monitoring the activities of the post-Milošević period of the DOS coalition.