 | |
| Successor | Lokarri |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1992 |
| Dissolved | 2006 |
Elkarri (Basque: "One to the Other" or "Mutually") [1] was an organization that sought a peaceful resolution of the Basque conflict. [2]
| | |
| Successor | Lokarri |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1992 |
| Dissolved | 2006 |
Elkarri (Basque: "One to the Other" or "Mutually") [1] was an organization that sought a peaceful resolution of the Basque conflict. [2]
Formed in 1992, its founders were members of the Basque National Liberation Movement who had become disillusioned with political violence. [2] As its membership grew, it encompassed other political viewpoints, eventually moving towards the moderate nationalism of the Basque Nationalist Party and Eusko Alkartasuna. [2] In 2000 Elkarri had about 2500 members and 13 full-time employees. [3]
Elkarri argued that the Basque conflict had deep historical roots and could only be resolved through a political settlement between ETA and the Spanish government. [2]
In 2006 Elkarri split into two organizations: Lokarri and Baketik. [4] Lokarri organized [5] the 2011 Donostia-San Sebastián International Peace Conference that led to ETA's "definitive cessation of its armed activity." [6] It disbanded in 2015. [7]
ETA, an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, was an armed Basque nationalist and far-left separatist organization in the Basque Country between 1959 and 2018, with its goal being independence for the region. The group was founded in 1959 during the era of Francoist Spain, and later evolved from a pacifist group promoting traditional Basque culture to a violent paramilitary group. It engaged in a campaign of bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings throughout Spain and especially the Southern Basque Country against the regime, which was highly centralised and hostile to the expression of non-Castilian minority identities. ETA was the main group within the Basque National Liberation Movement and was the most important Basque participant in the Basque conflict.
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war against non-combatants. There are various different definitions of terrorism, with no universal agreement about it. Different definitions of terrorism emphasize its randomness, its aim to instill fear, and its broader impact beyond its immediate victims.
Batasuna was a Basque nationalist political party. Based mainly in Spain, it was banned in 2003, after a court ruling declared proven that the party was financing ETA with public money.
Basque nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the political unity of the Basques, today scattered between Spain and France. Since its inception in the late 19th century, Basque nationalism has included Basque independence movements.
An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well-equipped, regular military force state adversary. Due to this asymmetry, insurgents avoid large-scale direct battles, opting instead to blend in with the civilian population where they gradually expand territorial control and military forces. Insurgency frequently hinges on control of and collaboration with local populations.
Arnaldo Otegi Mondragón is a politician from the Basque Country who has been the General Secretary of Basque nationalist party EH Bildu since 2017. He was member of the Basque Parliament for both Herri Batasuna and Euskal Herritarrok. He was a convicted member of the ETA, a banned armed separatist group organization, in his early years. He was one of the key negotiators during the unsuccessful peace talks in Loiola and Geneva, in 2006.
Ermua is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. In 2019, Ermua had 15,880 inhabitants.
Civil resistance is a form of political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: it can involve systematic attempts to undermine or expose the adversary's sources of power. Forms of action have included demonstrations, vigils and petitions; strikes, go-slows, boycotts and emigration movements; and sit-ins, occupations, constructive program, and the creation of parallel institutions of government.
ETA's 2006 "permanent ceasefire" was the period spanning between 24 March and 30 December 2006 during which, following an ETA communiqué, the Spanish government, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on one side, and the militant group on the other, engaged in talks as a means to agree on a formula to voluntarily disband the latter. It was terminated as a result of the 2006 Madrid Barajas International Airport bombing.
The Basque conflict, also known as The terrorist fight in the Basque Country or as Spain–ETA conflict, was an armed and political conflict fought from 1959 to 2011 by the Basque National Liberation Movement, a group of Basque nationalist organizations which sought independence for the Basque Country, against Spain and France through various social, political, and terrorist means. The movement was largely built around Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a terrorist organization, which had launched a campaign of attacks against Spanish administrations and civilians since 1959. ETA had been proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Spanish, British, French and American authorities at different moments. The conflict took place mostly on Spanish soil, although to a smaller degree it was also present in France, which was primarily used as a safe haven by ETA members. It was the longest running violent conflict in modern Western Europe. It has been sometimes referred to as "Europe's longest war".
Political violence is violence which is perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. It can include violence which is used by a state against other states (war), violence which is used by a state against civilians and non-state actors, and violence which is used by violent non-state actors against states and civilians. It can also describe politically motivated violence which is used by violent non-state actors against a state or it can describe violence which is used against other non-state actors and/or civilians. Non-action on the part of a government can also be characterized as a form of political violence, such as refusing to alleviate famine or otherwise denying resources to politically identifiable groups within their territory.
The International Conference to Promote the Resolution of the Conflict in the Basque Country — more widely known as the Donostia-San Sebastián International Peace Conference — was a conference aimed at promoting a resolution to the Basque conflict, which took place in Donostia-San Sebastián on October 17, 2011, at Aiete Palace. It was organized by the Basque citizens' group Lokarri, and included leaders of Basque parties, as well as six international personalities known for their work in the field of politics and pacification: Kofi Annan, Bertie Ahern, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Pierre Joxe, Gerry Adams and Jonathan Powell. Tony Blair — former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom — could not be present due to commitments in the Middle East, but he supported the final declaration. The former US President Jimmy Carter and the former US senator George J. Mitchell also backed this declaration.
Joxe Azurmendi Otaegi is a Basque writer, philosopher, essayist and poet. He has published numerous articles and books on ethics, politics, the philosophy of language, technique, Basque literature and philosophy in general.
Peace psychology is a subfield of psychology and peace research that deals with the psychological aspects of peace, conflict, violence, and war. Peace psychology can be characterized by four interconnected pillars: (1) research, (2) education, (3) practice, and (4) advocacy. The first pillar, research, is documented most extensively in this article.
María Teresa "Maite" Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz, better known as Maite Pagazaurtundúa or Maite Pagaza, is a Spanish politician, activist and writer. For ten years, she has been an MEP in the European Parliament, where she has been a member of the political groups Renew Europe and ALDE.
Artisans of Peace is a group of civilian activists and union members from the Northern Basque Country in France, who came to prominence during 2016 and 2017 when they worked as peace brokers in order to obtain the disarmament of the separatist group ETA through disobedience with the French government.
The International Verification Commission (IVC) for the peace process in the *Basque Country was created on 28 September 2011 to verify ETA's declaration of a definitive end of violence. Since 2011 to 2017, the Commission, together with Basque institutions and Basque civil society, worked towards achieving an orderly end of violence.
Women in ETA in Francoist Spain were few in numbers. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) grew out of a Basque nationalist movement with roots that pre-dated the Second Spanish Republic. When Franco seized power, the new regime cracked down on Basque nationalism, imprisoned and killed many activists and made traditional women's activism difficult to continue. Basque nationalists began to stockpile weaponry following the end of World War II. ETA was created in 1952 by students in Bilbao, creating a fissure in the Basque nationalist community by the mid-1950s. Their attitude towards women was patriarchal and informed by their conservative Roman Catholicism. There would be few women in the movement in this period.
Women in the Basque Nationalist Party in Francoist Spain were involved in leadership positions from an early period. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) was founded prior to the Second Spanish Republic in Bilbao, as a conservative Roman Catholic organization. They initially tried to be neutral during the Civil War, but later more openly opposed Nationalist forces. This led to repression and investigation after the war of women PNV members, and wives and daughters of male PNV members. Emakume Abertzale Batza, PNV's women political section, was operated in exile in this early period.
Gesto por la Paz was a peace movement that was active in the Spanish Basque Country between 1985 and 2013. Gesto had its roots in an intitiave sponsored by the Catholic Church. It staged tens of thousands of protests over the course of its existence and had as many as 175 local chapters by the 1990s. Biscay was its stronghold. It included supporters from most of the Basque political parties, aside from Herri Batasuna and People's Party of the Basque Country.