Rose revolution
The Rose Revolution ( Georgian ვარდების რევოლუცია vardebis revolucia ) took place in Georgia in 2003 , led to the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze and brought the previous opposition to power. The term was borrowed from a quote from the first Georgian President Sviad Gamsachurdia : "We will throw roses instead of bullets at our enemies." The Rose Revolution is one of a series of political upheavals known as the Color Revolutions .
prehistory
Georgia was ruled by President Shevardnadze from 1992 until the Rose Revolution. His government introduced basic democratic rules in the country, but did not change the traditional clan economy and corruption . Loans from the World Bank and investment funds granted as part of development programs by the US government and the European Union perished in the shadow economy . Georgia remained one of the poorest countries in the world. The presidential family used the prevailing structures for personal financial gain and grew richer.
At the same time, Shevardnadze did not succeed in uniting Georgia internally after years of civil war. The autonomous republics of Abkhazia and Ajaria, as well as the autonomous region of South Ossetia, developed into stabilized de facto regimes under his rule , ruled by dictators who did not stand up to any election.
With the parliamentary elections on November 2, 2003, a change of power in Georgia seemed imminent. Two strong opposition alliances had formed that had already won the regional elections in 2002. It was about the United National Movement under the leadership of the former Justice Minister Mikheil Saakashvili and the Burjanadze Democrats under the President of Parliament Nino Burjanadze and her predecessor in office, Zurab Schwania . Opposite them were the electoral alliance of the President For a New Georgia and the Union for the Democratic Rebirth of the Adjarian dictator Aslan Abashidze .
Elections and protests
On November 2, 2003, elections to the Georgian parliament were held. They have been judged to be largely fake by domestic and international observers . Saakashvili declared himself the winner of the election on the basis of by -election surveys by institutes and called on the Georgians to demonstrate against Shevardnadze and to participate in civil disobedience against the government. The two large opposition alliances joined forces, demanded that Shevardnadze be removed and the election repeated.
On November 10, the director Giorgi Chaindrawa , the writer Dawit Turashvili and the employees of the Tbilisi Freedom Institute Giga Bokeria and Dawit Zurabishvili formed a committee for civil resistance that promoted protest activities against the government in universities, civil society organizations and rural areas. Saakashvili traveled to western Georgia, and in the regions of Mingrelia and Imereti turned to supporters of the former President Sviad Gamsachurdia in particular . He recalled Gamsachurdia's quote (“We will throw roses instead of bullets at our enemies”) and convinced around 30,000 people to come to Tbilisi.
In mid-November, anti-government demonstrations began on the streets of central Tbilisi , which soon seized all of Georgia’s major cities. The opposition youth organization Kmara! (Eng. Enough! ) joined the protests. Shevardnadze's government was supported by Ajarian dictator Abashidze. He sent thousands of his supporters to Tbilisi to hold a counter-demonstration.
Change of power
The demonstrations peaked on November 22nd, the day of the constituent session of the illegitimate parliament. Under the leadership of Saakashvili, opposition supporters stormed the parliament building with roses in their hands, gained access to the plenary chamber and interrupted President Shevardnadze's opening speech. Saakashvili called out to the old president: "Stand back!" A scuffle ensued. The president fled the building with his bodyguards . A little later he declared a state of emergency and began to mobilize troops and police units in his nearby residence. But the elite troops refused to obey the government.
On the evening of November 23, Shevardnadze met with the opposition leaders Saakashvili and Schwania to negotiate. The meeting was arranged by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov , who had flown to Tbilisi from Moscow . After the meeting, the President announced his resignation. The news sparked euphoria in the streets of Tbilisi. More than 100,000 protesters celebrated the resignation all night long with fireworks and rock concerts.
The previous Speaker of Parliament, Burjanadze, declared herself to be President until the new elections. The Georgian Supreme Court annulled the parliamentary elections except for the direct seats won in constituencies. On January 4, 2004, opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili won an overwhelming presidential election and was inaugurated on January 25. The Georgian parliament was re-elected on March 28th. The supporters of the Rose Revolution started with a united party called the National Movement - Democrats and won an absolute majority. The right opposition initially formed the only opposition faction in parliament.
Adjara
In May 2004 , the Second Rose Revolution took place in Batumi , the capital of Ajaria . After months of extreme tensions between Saakashvili's central government and the Adjarian dictator Abashidze, the National Movement - Democrats and Kmara! several thousand Ajarians against Abashid's policy. Abashidze broke up the demonstrations in the streets of Batumi and Kobuleti through the use of paramilitary organizations and the regular military . However, he did not succeed in intimidating his opponents. The protests intensified in terms of number of participants and intensity.
On May 6, 2004, demonstrators from all over Adjara gathered in Batumi. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Zurab Schwania and Interior Minister Giorgi Baramidze negotiated with Ajarian Interior Minister Jemal Gogitidze about a withdrawal of his armed forces from the border of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara to the rest of Georgia on the Choloki River and about permission to deploy Georgian special forces. Abashidze bowed to the massive pressure, announced his resignation the same evening and flew to Moscow. President Saakashvili visited Batumi the next day, where he was greeted as a liberator by celebrating Ajarians.
Balance sheet
The Rose Revolution became the model for further peaceful revolutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia . During the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in November 2004, supporters of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko waved Georgian flags and Yushchenko greeted the crowd with a red rose. The chairman of the Georgian Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security, Giwi Targamadze , was interviewed by Ukrainian opposition leaders about techniques of nonviolent resistance. Later he advised the leaders of the Kyrgyz opposition during the tulip revolution in 2005 .
It is said that a new era began in Georgia after the Rose Revolution. While the West sees it as a step towards more democracy in Transcaucasia , others, including Shevardnadze and various Russian politicians, argue that it was a "Made in America" coup . You emphasize the role of the Open Society Institute founded by George Soros , which financed the Georgian opposition.
Indeed, since 2004, the Saakashvili government had embarked on various reforms and taken tough measures against corruption. Nevertheless, various civil rights groups and the parliamentary opposition have expressed concern about authoritarian tendencies in Saakashvili's policies. Two years after the Rose Revolution, there are signs of a return to the old clan economy in the government. Georgian reformers, who were brought in from abroad by the president and appointed to government offices in order to develop sustainable political concepts and put them into practice, were dismissed after some time.
In November 2007, mass protests broke out in Tbilisi over dissatisfaction with the Saakashvili government . Tens of thousands of opposition supporters accused Saakashvili of authoritarianism and failure to fight poverty and corruption and called for his resignation. Saakashvili then had the demonstrations violently broken up by the police and declared a state of emergency . European media then spoke of the end of the rose revolution.
In May 2011 there were again protests against Saakashvili in Tbilisi, which were violently broken up by the security forces. According to former parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze , up to 300 members of the opposition have been arrested.
literature
- Jonathan Wheatley: Georgia from national awakening to Rose Revolution. Delayed transition in the former Soviet Union. Ashgate, Aldershot et al. 2005, ISBN 0-7546-4503-7 .
- Zurab Karumidze, James V. Wert (Ed.): "Enough!" The Rose Revolution in the Republic of Georgia 2003. Nova Science Publications, New York NY 2005, ISBN 1-59454-210-4 .
- Rebecca S. Katz: The Georgian regime crisis of 2003-2004. A case study in post-Soviet media representation of politics, crime and corruption (= Soviet and post-Soviet Politics and Society. Vol. 30). Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-89821-413-3 .
- Сергей Георгиевич Кара-Мурза: Экспорт революции. Ющенко, Саакашвили. Алгоритм, Москва 2005, ISBN 5-9265-0197-0 .
Web links
- The Rose Revolution in Georgia: Documentation by Deutsche Welle (PDF)
- Irakli Kakabadze: Inside the Revolution of the Roses (English; PDF; 155 kB)
- Rose Revolution from today's perspective ( Memento from April 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Giorgi Kandelaki: The Rose Revolution from the perspective of a participant, 2005 ( Memento from June 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English, PDF, 199 KiB)