ETA : reasons behind Basque separatist terrorism

Abstract

On 20th October 2011, the Basque separatist group ETA (i.e. Euskadi ta Askatasuna, Basque Homeland and Freedom) declared a historic cessation of armed activities against the governmental institutions of Spanish state power. However, this momentous ceasefire only came after circa fifty years of Basque bloodshed and violence orchestrated by ETA. Listed as a terrorist organization, ETA nonetheless claims to fight for an independent Basque homeland called Euskadi/Euskal Herria, an ancestral region situated between Spain and France, with a unique people embracing a distinctive Basque nationalist identity and ethnic culture separate from Spanish and French state assimilation. In its quest for Basque independence, ETA hence waged a campaign of separatist terrorism against the Spanish state, instigated since Francisco Franco' s dictatorship, and continued within democratic Spain, resulting in numerous assassinations, bombings, extortions and kidnappings which killed more than eight-hundred victims throughout ETA's lethal years against Spain's state establishment. In this context, one must therefore understand on what are ETA's principal reasons behind its extremist nature of Basque separatist terrorism. By delving deeper into its central argument, this dissertation hence attempts to explore the revolutionary motivations adopted by ETA terrorists against the Spanish government, or in specific terms, upon what motivates the ETA-Basque armed separatists to exploit terrorism, aimed in shifting political legitimacy from Spanish state power towards nat10nal self-determination for the Basque region.