The End of ETA Violence

Sometimes we think that Nationalism is good, sometimes not so much. You’d except nationalism to be rampant in the Middle East and Africa with all these terrorist groups forming. However, nationalism isn’t simply an Islamic idea. Nationalism has formed in several parts of Western Europe. Especially in Northern Spain where the Basque People live. 

The Basques are an ethnic group who live in Northern Spain and in parts of southern France. But the Basques aren't the only ethnic group in Spain as Catalans and Gallegos are two other major nationalistic groups who demand their own separate states, especially the Catalans. Each of these groups currently has their own unique language that’s either similar to Spanish or not. However today I’m mostly going to speak about the Basque nationalistic ideology and the recent events in May (or at least within the past few months) with the disarmament of the ETA. 

First let me give you the lowdown on the Basque situation. Since the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the Basques have had some issues with Spain. When the war broke out the Basques sided with the Republicans but were defeated by the Nationalist armies under Francisco Franco. When Franco became dictator of Spain, he had a series of plans to destroy the “enemies of Spain” and those included the Catalans and Basques who both sided on the Republican side. The language, Euskadi, was prohibited as well as the culture and customs of the Basque people. After World War II the Basques had a resurgence of nationalism and the government at the time went into exile in France. With nationalism becoming rampant within the Basques, a number of students were tired of the exiled governments speeches and rallies. So they formed the ETA 

The ETA, or in Basque “Euskadi Ta Askatasuna” (Basque Homeland and Liberty), is a nationalist group that has called for the independence of the Basque homeland. For the past several decades they were active militarily but at first the ETA didn’t turn to violence. The original reason was to preserve the Basque culture and language to sort of “resist” Spain. However, in the 60’s they decided to turn to terrorism. With a few small-scale attacks, the Spanish government brutally suppressed the ETA. So, ETA had to changes its tactics. And that they did. In 1980 the ETA killed over 92 people in assassinations, murders, and bombs against government officials and police officers. In response, Spaniards formed death squads such as the GAL (Anti-Terrorist Liberation Group) to hunt down ETA members. This became brutal as several Basques and non-basques alike were killed by these death squads. So the ETA became increasingly violent towards Spain. Over the past three decades, ETA has killed over 800 people with terrorism. They’ve been put on the CIA’s terror watch list and are still on it today. 

Suddenly in May, ETA decided to disarm itself to go about preserving culture. Over the years ETA became less popular amongst Basques and resorted to more of a drive towards economic freedom, but still terrorism was a popular tactic within the military wing of the ETA. While I think this is good that the ETA has dissolved, I still believe the basques deserve their own freedom of culture and language. The Basques need to take a more peaceful yet demanding approach to the Spanish government. I’d say the same for the Catalans in Cataluña but that's for another day.