Teamwork
Unlike the revolution which took place in Armenia, where there was one dominant political force, in Georgia there was a wide range of political powers.
On March 31 of this year, the “My Step” campaign, conceived by the Civil Contract Party, kicked off in Gyumri’s Vardanants Square. Leader of the Civil Contract, Nikol Pashinyan, with a small group of people, embarked on a two-week trek through the country to rally citizens to join them in protesting the upcoming election of Serzh Sargsyan as Armenia’s prime minister.
In 2017, the Civil Contract Party formed the Yelq Alliance with the Republic Party and the Bright Armenia Party to participate in the parliamentary elections. Securing 7.77 percent of the vote, the Yelq Alliance made it to parliament and announced that there had been abuses of administrative and financial resources and the “will” of the elections had been subjected to these abuses.
Two of the political forces comprising the Yelq Alliance, who had been able to secure seats in the National Assembly following the 2017 parliamentary elections, refused to take part in the “My Step” movement. They saw the materialization of their “struggle” through other means. The leader of the Bright Armenia Party, Edmon Marukyan published an article in Aravot on April 4, stating: “We’ve had numerous opportunities to reiterate that we do not believe the argument being circulated by our fellow alliance members that the people can hinder Serzh Sargsyan from becoming Prime Minister.”
Indeed, Nikol Pashinyan and his political party started the “My Step” movement on their own. This coincided with the “Reject Serzh” initiative that was also attempting to prevent Serzh Sargsyan’s third term in office from becoming a reality.
In Georgia, things were much different. Mikheil Saakashvili, who was elected president after receiving an unprecedented 96.27 percent of the vote, battled alongside other political forces. The most prominent was the Burjanadze-Democratic party, formed by the former Speaker of Parliament Zurab Zhvania, Nino Burjanadze, and the Union of Georgian Traditionalists, led by Akaki Asatiani. In addition, a youth resistance movement was rapidly spreading among university student activists called Kmara (Georgian for Enough!), which will be discussed later.
Armenia’s revolution was for the most part taking place based on the principle of self-organization, however, the “My Step” and “Reject Serzh” initiatives were the driving force and the ones that later came to power. In Georgia the political parties were manifold. Each had a different point of view, especially concerning their vision of the revolution and political reform; because of this, perhaps, the political forces formed during the revolutionary period did not last long. Burjanadze, who was Speaker of Parliament before the revolution and later served as acting president after Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in 2003, and again when Saakashveli resigned in 2007, soon after became part of the opposition. This was preceded by a series of critical events; to begin with, the Saakashvili-led United National Movement Party list for parliamentary elections did not include Burjanadze’s favorites. This ultimately resulted in Burjanadze refusing to run under the National Movement’s proportional party-list. Later, in 2008, Burjanadze formed the Democratic Movement-United Georgia opposition party which, during the spring protests of 2009, demanded Mikheil Saakashvili’s resignation. And, in 2005, Zurab Zhvania “died” under mysterious circumstances.
From Government to Government
The second difference between the revolutions was the experience in state governance. Unlike in Armenia, Georgia’s revolutionary leaders were former state officials, as well as principal members of the then ruling Union of Citizens of Georgia Party (also known as the Georgian Citizens’ Union Party ). In 1995, the symbol of the Rose Revolution, Mikheil Saakashvili, had been invited by Zhvania personally to become a party member.
That same year, Saakashvili became a parliament member and from 1995-1998, served as Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional and Legal Affairs. From 1998-1999, he was head of the Union of Citizens of Georgia faction. He was elected to a second term in the parliamentary elections under the same party in 1999. On Oct. 12, 2000, Saakashvili was appointed Minister of Justice and served in that position until Sept. 19 of the next year.
His resignation from his position, as he later claimed, was conditioned by the absence of Shevardnadze’s support in the battle against corruption.
In 1995, Nino Burjanadze, along with Saakashvili, was elected as parliament member on the proportional list of the Union of Georgian Citizens. Until 1998, she served as the First Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional and Legal Affairs; and when Saakashvili became the leader of the party faction, she became chair of the committee. In 1999, Burjanadze, like Saakashvili, was elected for a second term in parliament through the ruling political party’s electoral list. In 2001, she became the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament.
Zurab Zhvania, however, was perhaps the most experienced. From 1995-2001, he served as Speaker of Georgia’s parliament, was the Secretary General of the Union of Georgian Citizens and after the revolution served as State Minister and then Prime Minister.
The revolutionaries in Armenia had no prior experience in governance, but when it came to street protests, they had a wealth of experience that their Georgian counterparts did not.This is apparent when one examines the biographies of Nikol Pashinyan and many of his teammates.
Of course, there are varying opinions. Some say that it is important to have prior experience in state governance in order to properly assume political responsibility later. Others claim that prior experience gained during the previous regimes can be disruptive. Nika Rurua, Georgia’s previous Culture Minister and parliament member of the sixth and seventh convocation of parliament, argued that prior political experience was completely unnecessary for revolutionary leaders.
The Students and the Revolution
University students have almost always played a pivotal role in realizing revolutions and not only. We can recall the civil unrest in France in 1968 when university students were yelling, “Sex and solidarity!” It is also important to remember Serbia, as it is directly tied to the Rose Revolution’s actively involved student-youth movement Kmara.
This student-youth movement was created in 2001. A group of students at Tbilisi State University began complaining of corruption within the university. In 2003, their campaign was officially named Kmara, and they began their fight against President Eduard Shevardnadze. The movement thoroughly utilized the principles and experiences of the Serbian political organization Otpor (Resistance!), even co-opting their flag. After the Rose Revolution, Kmara continued its revolutionary activities outside of the country, participating in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and was also active in Belarus. On August 24, 2005, when police in Belarus arrested Vladimir Kobets, the leader of Zubr, a Belarusian youth resistance movement, two Kmara members, Giorgi Kandelaki and Luka Tsuladze, were also detained. Kobets was released shortly after the arrest, but the Belarusian government kept the two Georgians imprisoned for 15 days on account of “hooliganism.” The Georgian Foreign Ministry, President Saakashvili, and Amnesty International demanded their freedom, and on Sept. 1, they were released.
During the Georgian revolution, the youth movement was one of the most active opposition forces against Shevardnadze. People remember Kmara painting anti-government graffiti in the streets. After the revolution, most of the movement’s members, as well as its founders, became part of the government such as member of parliament and Secretary of the National Security Council Giga Bokeria, and the former mayor of Tbilisi, Giorgi “Gigi” Ugulava. It was Bokeria himself, who after visiting Serbia, brought back with him the revolutionary experience and contacts of the resistance movement Otpor. The same fundamental principles and demands were used in Georgia: non-centralized leadership, frequent protests against the political rule of Shevernadze, political street art, and so on. Kmara, unlike Otpor, eventually became absorbed into the government. Even after overthrowing President Slobodan Milošević of Serbia and Montenegro, and helping instate a new government, Otpor continued working as an opposition force.[1]
University students in Armenia also played an important role in governmental change. The student resistance movement began earlier in 2017 as a response to parliament passing a bill that ended military draft deferment for university students; they, the students, were demanding deferment. “For the Development of Science” was the name of the student protest movement yet they were unsuccessful in securing military deferment. Later, a student-organized initiative called YSU Restart was formed, with a large portion of the members hailing from “For the Development of Science.” They demanded reforms within institutions of higher education. They also declared that the ruling Republican Party and Serzh Sargsyan should be banished, blaming them for the dysfunctional condition of universities and in general, Armenia itself.
This youth movement from the beginning was mistrustful of the Republican Party. This stemmed partly from the ineffectiveness of their negotiations with the government concerning military service deferment. And during the revolution, the youth resistance movement was the one that generated popular slogans such as, “Serzh-less Armenia,” “Free and Independent Students,” and so on. They declared that they felt imprisoned and persecuted for their beliefs, not only in university settings, but in the entire country. These feelings were amplified due to the fact that all of the higher education institutions were politicized.
After the revolution, this student initiative continued its’ civic struggle, focusing on education and civic-based activism.
Financing
