Civil War in the Basque Country

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The conflict between the terrorist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and the Spanish state in the years from 1968 to 1979 is described by political circles close to ETA as the civil war in the Basque Country .

causes

The Basques are one of the oldest ethnic groups in Europe, their language is not related to any other Western European language. The Kingdom of Navarre already existed between the 10th and 16th centuries and included all of today's Basque provinces and the present-day Autonomous Region of Navarre. For the militant Basque nationalists it still embodies the territorial model of an independent Basque Country. Basque nationalism received its first boost with the advent of industrialization. Up until then, the Basque Country was dominated by agriculture, due to the presence of rich ore and v. a. Coal deposits arose now heavy industry, with the center Bilbao . The lack of labor at the time led to increased immigration from other parts of Spain.

On July 31, 1895, Sabino Arana Goiri founded the first Basque party with the PNV . The PNV soon received a lively influx from an army of impoverished, disappointed workers like those everywhere in Europe at the time of industrialization. However, the PNV also fueled suspicion of the immigrants and advocated an independent state separate from Spain.

The reason for the explosion of the conflict, however, lies in the Spanish civil war . The winner of the Spanish Civil War, General Franco , was an ardent nationalist and implemented the "One Spain Policy", which the military had advocated for centuries, which did not provide the regions with the slightest political, cultural or linguistic autonomy because it was seen as a threat to the unity of Spain. Against this background, the fight against Basque in particular was relentlessly pursued. For example, the Basques were banned from speaking their language and, among other things, prohibited from rising to high public offices.

On July 31, 1959, Basque students founded ETA (Basque Euskadi 'ta Askatasuna, translated: "Basque Country and Freedom"). ETA's fight began shortly afterwards with bomb attacks on transport facilities, and the first fatality occurred as early as 1960. Above all, representatives of the Spanish state and the Franco dictatorship were goals of ETA. However, since the first fatality (a one and a half year old child) died later as a result of the attack and there were no further fatalities until 1968, the beginning of the Basque Civil War is dated June 7, 1968.

Beginnings

On June 7, 1968, ETA raided a police station in Villabona, Basque Country, killing several police officers. In the period that followed, several representatives of the Spanish state, but also uninvolved civilians, fell victim to the attacks by ETA. ETA succeeded in its most spectacular action in 1973 with the assassination of the Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco .

The reason for the success of ETA was the broad support of the Basque people, who suffered from the suppression of the Franco regime. France also provided indirect assistance by allowing ETA activists to use the French border area as a refuge without being persecuted by the French state. ETA's struggle against the authoritarian Franco dictatorship also met with goodwill in the rest of Europe.

However, sympathies for ETA began to wane with the end of the Franco dictatorship. In October 1974, ETA split into ETA militar and ETA político-militar . The latter ended the armed struggle and took advantage of an amnesty from the new Spanish government, while ETA militar became increasingly radical. In 1975 the Basque language was allowed again and Basque culture was officially recognized. On December 22nd, 1979, the Spanish government finally granted the Basque provinces extensive autonomy , which is why this date is seen as the official end of the Basque Civil War.

The following time

The Statute of Autonomy granted the Basque Country more extensive rights than any other Spanish province. This brought about a final break between the radicals of ETA and the population. Basque is taught in schools, the Basque Country has its own police force and is even allowed to collect its own taxes. The remaining ETA therefore melted down to a hard core of radicals and dived underground. The effectiveness of ETA initially did not suffer from this. ETA extended its attacks to all of Spain and especially to Madrid . Of the approx. 800 fatalities from ETA attacks, approx. 2/3 did not die until after 1980.

Due to the gradual withdrawal of ETA support from the Basque population, as well as improved cooperation between Spain and France, numerous successes in the fight against ETA could be recorded from 1990 onwards, but without achieving final pacification.