The Arab Spring countries’ revolutionaries will embrace the choice of freedom and dignity protected and ensured by a democratic system, and their demand for change is going to be fulfilled despite all conspiracies, coups and counterrevolutions,

human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman was quoted saying.   

In an op-ed published by The Washington Post, Karman wrote to say: “Despite all the betrayal and suffering, we have a message for the world: We refuse to choose between dictatorship and murderous chaos, between dictatorship and terrorism. We embrace a third choice: freedom and dignity, protected and ensured by a democratic system. We will struggle for this noble cause and accept any burden that comes with it.

“Amid the chaos brought by tyrannies, we say to those who have lost hope: Your revolutions are glorious. Your demand for change will be fulfilled. This is what history teaches us. Despite the betrayal, the conspiring, the coups, the counterrevolutions, you will emerge victorious. This is your fate,” Mrs. Karman added. 

She pointed out that the revolution’s youth knew that they would not be welcomed with roses, yet even as they encountered violence, they refused to respond in kind and were determined to face violence with peace, not with counter-violence.

“We wanted democracy for our people. This was the ultimate purpose of our peaceful revolution,” she explained, wondering whether is it possible for Yemen to enjoy democracy while the deep state of the despotic regime works to thwart it?

The mother of revolution emphasized that there is a way to achieve a sustainable peace in Yemen, represented by revoking all the actions taken by the coup, restoring all pre-coup institutions and systems and implementing all agreements reached during the national dialogue including the holding of a referendum on the draft constitution and subsequent elections.

She stressed the need that only the state has the right to a monopoly of violence and the possession and use of arms, noting that this entails disarming all militias and armed groups, which should transform themselves into political parties.