Uprisings that brought down governments

BANGKOK (AP) — Weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs in Bangladesh have turned into a widespread uprising that forced the prime minister to flee the country and resign.

The protests began peacefully last month and were led mainly by students frustrated with a system they said favored those with connections to the ruling party.

However, they turned violent on July 15, when students clashed with security officers and pro-government activists.

Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled this week after riots that killed nearly 300 people, including students and police officers.

Students and other young people have often played crucial roles in popular uprisings that have overthrown governments or forced them to change their policies.

Here’s a look at some other notable cases:

Gota protests, go back to your village, in Sri Lanka.

As in Bangladesh, widespread protests in Sri Lanka in 2022 toppled a government — and young people played a key role.

Scattered demonstrations turned into months-long protests beginning in March 2022 as the economic crisis worsened in the Indian Ocean island nation, causing shortages of fuel, cooking gas and other basic goods as well as a prolonged power outage.

Uprising at the Polytechnic of Athens, Greece: In November 1973, students at the Polytechnic University of Athens rose up against the military junta that ruled Greece with an iron fist for more than six years.

Military officers seized power in a coup in 1967, establishing a dictatorship marked by the arrest, exile and torture of political opponents.

The brutality and hard line led to growing opposition, particularly among students, culminating in the November uprising.

Soweto uprising in South Africa.

In the decades-long struggle against white minority rule in South Africa, a pivotal moment came in the Soweto area of ​​Johannesburg in 1976.

In a series of protests that began on June 16, black students from several schools took to the streets to protest having to study in Afrikaans, the Dutch-language of the white rulers who designed the system of racial oppression known as apartheid.

South Africa achieved democracy with first-past-the-post elections in 1994, and June 16 is now a national holiday.