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| - The unprecedented week of protests against Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is reminiscent of recent protest movements in other former Soviet republics: The "rose revolution" toppled veteran Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze after three weeks of popular protests in November 2003. Opposition parties declared the parliamentary elections rigged and brought between 50,000 and 100,000 protesters into the streets of Tbilisi on November 22-23. Holding a rose in his hand, opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili led the crowd as it stormed the first session of the new parliament. Shevardnadze resigned that night and Saakashvili was elected president on January 4, 2004, with 96 percent of the vote. "Orange revolution" protests rocked the country in November and December 2004 after Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, backed by Moscow, was declared the winner in a presidential vote against pro-Western contender Viktor Yushchenko on November 21. Yushchenko said the results were rigged and led crowds hundreds of thousands strong in central Kiev for several weeks until the country's supreme court threw out the ballot because of massive fraud and ordered a new round of voting. Yushchenko was elected president on December 26. The regime of President Askar Akayev, in charge of the Central Asian state for 15 years, fell in just a few hours on March 24, 2005, when several thousand protesters stormed government buildings. Felix Kulov, a leading politician imprisoned under Akayev, was sprung from jail and Kurmanbek Bakiyev, an opposition leader, was appointed interim president and prime minister by the parliament. Russia offered asylum to Akayev. The February 2008 first round election of Serzh Sarkisian, the handpicked successor to outgoing president Robert Kocharian, was immediately disputed by the opposition, which cried fraud. After 11 days of peaceful protests, authorities took a tougher line, and violent clashes broke out in the capital Yerevan between hundreds of riot police and thousands of protesters, in which 10 people were killed. A 20-day state of emergency was declared banning all public gatherings and the publication by the media of all non-official information. In April 2009 the announcement of a crushing victory by the communists led to violent demonstrations in the capital Chisinau. The revolt came to a head with the sacking by thousands of young protesters of the parliament and the presidency. One demonstrator was killed and many arrested. Opposition deputies managed to block the election of the president and secure the dissolution of the parliament. There was no president for nearly three years, despite three general elections. In 2013, the suspension by the Ukrainian government of an accord with the European Union led to pro-European demonstrations. In January 2014, 100 were killed over three days when riot police cracked down on demonstrators. The parliament impeached President Yanukovych who fled to Russia. In May, the pro-western billionaire Petro Poroshenko won the presidential election. In April 2018, Armenia erupted again when Sarkisian, who had served the permitted number of presidential terms, strengthened the powers of the prime minister and sought the job. An enormous opposition movement sprang up, led by Nikol Pashinyan, a parliamentarian and former journalist. After several weeks of mobilisation, the movement forced out Sarkisian whose resignation was celebrated by thousands of people. On May 8, Pashinyan was elected prime minister. burs-kd/jmy/pvh
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