What Makes a Revolution Successful?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2018
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Armenia's recent successful uprising is being celebrated as unprecedented for a former Soviet state. The so-called “velvet revolution” began on the last day in March with a protest walk. It ended two weeks and 100km later with the government overthrown.
Yet revolutions rarely triumph.
In this Inquiry we look at the factors that need to come together for such a revolution to succeed. Do they always need to be bloody and brutal or can non-violence resistance be as effective? How important are state institutions like the military to determining success? And what role do international relationships have to play?
(Photo: Supporters of Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan celebrate at the central square of Yerevan, 2 May 2018. Credit: Vano Shlamov/AFP)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me, |
| 0:03.2 | Helena Merriman. |
| 0:04.4 | Each week, one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:08.6 | On the 31st of March, Nicole Pashinyan, an Armenian politician put on a khaki |
| 0:19.0 | t-shirt, a sturdy pair of shoes and set off on a long walk a protest walk. |
| 0:26.3 | He wanted the leader of his country who'd been in power for 10 years and looked set to |
| 0:31.2 | rule for many more to step down. The destination, the capital, |
| 0:36.7 | Yerevan. At first he cut a lonely figure, accompanied only by a handful of |
| 0:42.3 | journalists. Two weeks later, by the time he reached |
| 0:45.7 | Yerevan, thousands were with him. |
| 0:48.2 | We go! |
| 0:50.2 | We go! |
| 0:51.2 | We go! |
| 0:52.2 | It's been called a velvet revolution. Yes, another uprising. There's been quite a few in recent years. |
| 0:59.0 | Syria, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Egypt, Oman, Tunisia, Libya. |
| 1:05.0 | Some of them succeeded, but others failed. |
| 1:09.0 | And we want to know what it is that makes the difference. |
| 1:12.0 | So this week we bring you the stories of four |
| 1:15.0 | uprisings from people who are part of them as we ask what makes a revolution |
| 1:20.6 | successful? revolution successful. |
| 1:27.0 | Part one, not a shot fired. |
| 1:34.0 | When we arrived, there were a few thousand people at that time but it was becoming bigger and bigger day by day. |
... |
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