Concept
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.