Ukraine completes its Georgian revolution

21 January 2005

November 2003, Tbilisi, Georgia

Tens of thousands of people carrying the five cross flags and shouting "resign!, resign!" rallied on Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi for three weeks. They demonstrated against the official results of the rigged parliamentary election - the last, desperate attempt of the widely unpopular regime of Eduard Shevardnadze to stay in power. These demonstrations were led by the opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili who, backed by the results of independent exit polls, claimed that his party, the United National Movement, won the elections. The culmination of these opposition protests came on November 23, St. Georgia's Day. 100,000 protesters with red roses in their hands seized the parliament building and state chancellery, forcing Shevardnadze to step down and paving the way for the government of Mikheil Saakashvili, who on January 4, 2004, was overwhelmingly elected as the President of Georgia with a mandate to implement long-needed social-economical reforms. The new era in Georgia started.

this revolution was an exception down to the particularities of the situation in Georgia

After the Rose Revolution in Georgia, many analysts covering political processes in the post-soviet region argued that this revolution was an exception down to the particularities of the situation in Georgia, and not illustratative of the general picture in the post-soviet countries. As evidence, they would mention Armenia, Belarus and Azerbaijan, where the authorities managed to crack down opposition demonstrations. But in just one year this notion proved to be totally wrong when the fire of revolution began to flare in Ukraine.

November-December 2004, Kiev, Ukraine

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, waving orange flags, the color of the opposition leader Yushchenko's campaign coalition, and shouting "Yushchenko is our President", jammed the Independence Square in downtown Kiev for one month. The protests began as the outcry of public anger against the suspect official results of the second round of voting in the presidential contest between Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko. The contest has already been marred by the appalling disfigurement of Yushchenko with the deadly poison dioxin - an assassination attempt that he hardly survived.

The results announced by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine on November 22 claimed that the presidential election was won by the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. However, citing the results of the independent exit polls that gave him an 11% lead over his opponent, Yushchenko called his supporters to proclaim his victory. Soon his case was backed by international observers who denounced the election as rigged. Thousands of people travelled to the capital from across Ukraine, even though their journeys were disrupted by government closures of major roads and airports. Some of the demonstrators set up tents in Kiev's Independence Square. Large

Georgians were highly visible in these demonstrations in Kiev

demonstrations were held in many cities elsewhere in Ukraine. It is worth mentioning that Georgians were highly visible in these demonstrations in Kiev and the flag of Georgia has been among those on display in the city's Independence Square, while Yushchenko himself held up a rose in an apparent reference to the Rose Revolution.

Meanwhile the governors of Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine, which mostly supported Yanukovych, suggested turning the country into a federation with a new autonomous republic of "Southern-Eastern Ukraine" with its capital in Kharkiv. With thousands of supporters of the two opposing candidates in Kiev, separatists' movement in some regions of Ukraine, and Russia's rude intervention into the internal affairs of a neighboring state, Ukraine approached the point where its very existence came into question. Everybody was fraught with uncertainty - what will come next?

Fortunately for Ukraine, common sense won over insanity. Mediated by high-level foreign politicians from Europe, direct talks began between Yanukovych and Yushchenko. Though these direct talks did not bring a major breakthrough, they contributed to defusing the situation. In the meantime, major developments took place in the legal field when on December 3 the Ukrainian Supreme Court reached the decision to annul the results and order a repeat of the second round. Viktor Yushenko and Viktor Yanukovych again faced each other in the presidential elections.

The second vote was re-run on December 26. International observers, deployed in thousands for this round, reported a much fairer vote, and Viktor Yushchenko won with about 52% of the vote, to Yanukovych's 44%. Yushchenko was finally declared the winner on January 10, 2005 after the failure of a legal action brought by Yanukovych. The new era in Ukraine started.

These dramatic processes in Ukraine which were dubbed "the Orange

people who care for freedom and democracy cannot be intimidated by brutal force, oppression, threats and lies

Revolution" represented one of the finest moments of Ukrainian history. Ukraine once again proved that it is an integral part of the democratic world. Both Ukrainians and Georgians showed to the world that people who care for freedom and democracy cannot be intimidated by brutal force, oppression, threats and lies when they defend their fundamental right - to vote in fair and democratic elections.

Political analysts no longer argue about the exclusiveness of revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine. They simply ask one question - where is next?

Links: OneWorld Georgia Guide