eta

Declassified report sparks outrage among Catalan parties

Fernando Grande-Marlaska says he was referring to street unrest only following accusations of him "trivializing" terrorism and insulting victims

Pablo Casado says efforts at dialogue resemble strategies employed by banned Basque nationalists

European Court of Human Rights rules against members of Basque terrorist group

Basque terrorist group confirms its definitive disbandment

Basque terrorist group sends letter ahead of its official dissolution

Basque terrorist organization asks for "forgiveness" as Spanish government says announcement comes late but is a consequence of group’s defeat

The 21 dead and 45 injured in the ETA car bomb attack were honored on the 30th anniversary of the massacre

Secretary General of ‘abertzale’ Basque separatist party Sortu and former member of Basque terrorist group ETA, Arnaldo Otegi met this Wednesday with Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell. The meeting provoked huge media expectation and also triggered fierce criticism amongst several groups in the Parliament. The People’s Party of Catalonia (PPC) and Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans accused Forcadell of “listening to terrorists” and met with the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) instead. Earlier this morning, Otegi explained in an interview with Catalunya Radio that Catalonia’s pro-independence process “has no turning back” and that the aim of his visit is “to listen and to learn”. Otegi also hoped that the Basque pro-independence process would have a leader such as former Catalan President Artur Mas.

The People’s Party (PP) is holding a convention in Barcelona, with leading figures of the party, including PM Mariano Rajoy, to reject Catalonia’s self-determination and independence. On Friday, the PP’s Secretary General, María Dolores de Cospedal, stated that her party “will not allow Catalonia to split from Spain through machete strikes”. She added that “no one can bite off [a chunk of] a country” and that an independent Catalonia “will be born in bankruptcy”. In addition, the leader of the PP’s Catalan branch, Alícia Sánchez-Camacho, accused the Catalan President of “imposing” the self-determination vote. Besides, she emphasised that the PP “had suffered a lot” in the Basque Country, which is also happening in Catalonia. Within the convention there is a conference of a former PP member who chairs the Association of Terrorism Victims.

The day the United Kingdom and Scotland signed the agreement to organise the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, the Spanish Justice Minister, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, states that the Spanish Government will not agree to organise or even negotiate on a referendum on Catalonia’s independence. Furthermore, the same day, Jaime Mayor Oreja, the leader of the Spanish Euro MPs from the People’s Party (PP), proposed “facing” the Catalan independence movement as was done earlier with ETA’s terrorism. Two weeks ago, Mayor Oreja had already linked the Catalan independence movement with the Basque terrorist group ETA. The Catalan President, Artur Mas, said that if Madrid does not authorise the referendum, Catalonia will appeal to European and international institutions.

The President of the Catalan Government, from the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist coalition CiU considered the statement “an important step” and stressed that they “are hoping for the terrorist group's total break up and the total abandonment of its weapons”. The Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party, ERC, asked the Spanish Government to quit its “ivory tower”, “as the United Kingdom did”, and “let the Basque and the Catalan peoples decide their future”. However, the Catalan Association of Terrorist Victims has criticised ETA’s announcement and said that it only hopes for ETA’s disappearance, but other individual victims have celebrated the news. ETA has killed more than 800 people, 50 of them in Catalonia.

The Basque terrorist group ETA announced this afternoon, minutes before 19h (CET), the “clear, firm and definitive purpose” to end “its armed activity” by sending a declaration to the Basque newspapers Gara and Berria, and to the BBC. Here we attached ETA’s statement sent to the BBC.