Over 500,000 Protest ETA In Madrid

[Алекс]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Thousands_of_Spaniards_march_in_Madrid_in_anti-govt_rally/articleshow/2568644.cms

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards have marched in Madrid accusing the government of treachery for its policy of negotiating with Basque separatists.

The demonstrators, many waving red and yellow Spanish flags, included hundreds of survivors of terrorist attacks and relatives of victims. They marched on Saturday in downtown Madrid behind a banner that read: "For a free future. Together we'll defeat ETA".

They also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, saying he has insulted ETA's victims and the nation by seeking peace talks with the armed group.

Madrid's regional government, controlled by the opposite conservative party, estimated attendance at 550,000 people.

The Interior Ministry did not give an immediate estimate.

ETA, which has killed 800 people since the late 1960s, has been fighting for a separate homeland in the Basque region that straddles the border between Spain and France.

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Traitorous negotiations with these primitive thugs cannot be excused. The Spanish government must act now to crush ETA and bring the terrorists to justice.

[Алекс]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/02/europe/EU-GEN-Spain-Basque-Rally.php

MADRID, Spain: Thousands of protesters held a rally in the northern Basque city of Bilbao Sunday to protest the arrest of people for lending support to the Basque separatist group ETA.

Several thousand protesters marched carrying placards reading "In favor of the Basque Country's democratic rights."

Spanish police on Friday began detaining 56 Basques who went on trial in November 2005, were convicted of indirectly aiding ETA, and then released on bail pending sentencing.

Those convicted were judged to have aided the armed Basque separatist group ETA through a network of outwardly legitimate social and political organizations.

Police began the roundup to avoid the possibility of those convicted fleeing Spain before they were sentenced, officials said. Up to 37 people have been arrested, lawyer Jone Goirizelaia told reporters.

The case ended in March. Judges are expected to begin meting out sentences later this month.

The trial stemmed from an eight-year inquiry by Baltasar Garzon, Spain's leading anti-terror investigator.

Garzon argued that ETA was not made up solely of armed commandos but was supported through political, financial and media organizations. The defendants were accused of belonging to these groups, some of which had been outlawed previously.

The organizations, such as the banned youth groups Ekin and KAS, engaged in activities ranging from fundraising and helping ETA plan attacks to organizing street violence by separatist supporters, Garzon charged.

The rally went ahead despite the death Saturday of Raul Centeno, a 24-year-old member of the Civil Guard and the serious injury of his colleague, Fernando Trapero, 23, in a shooting in France blamed on ETA.

ETA declared a cease-fire in March 2006 but grew frustrated with a lack of concessions in ensuing peace talks with the government.

It killed two people in a car bombing at Madrid airport in December 2006 and formally declared the truce over in June.

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Can Madrid maintain the unity of the Spanish nation? Or will dissolution into the E.U. render the question moot.

[Ambrosio Spinola]

Madrid is now the Socialist Goverment which was precisely the one who shifted from the tough stance of the previous conservative goverment which had ETA against the corner.

[Phantasm]

...
Traitorous negotiations with these primitive thugs cannot be excused. The Spanish government must act now to crush ETA and bring the terrorists to justice.

http://countrystudies.us/spain/39.htm

These “primitive thugs” and their people deserve their own homeland. This is not a minor fringe group. The Basque culture goes back over a thousand years.

You cannot force people to assimilate into a culture or society that is not their own.

Why not allow the Basque nationalists their “Euzkadi?”

:confused:

[Ambrosio Spinola]

Because this "nation" has never existed before, the language and the whole national feeling was something taken out of thin air in the XIX century following the nationalism spree across all Europe. Spanish or Castillian is a language derived from Basque. The reconquista of Spain from the moors was a big part due to the basques. There would be no Spain without the basque.
This has been anyhow explained before here.

Just think about this...all these common spanish last names ended in "-ez" are basque..all these Gonzalez, Fernandez, Hernandez, Sanchez, Perez, etc, etc, etc...

[cerberus]

As an outsider I have to agree with Ebus on this.

[Phantasm]

OK...

Its just that... I have Nationalism in my blood.

I guess that any group wishing to Nationalize themselves have my support from the outset.

:D

[Felix the Cat]

A lot of historic Basque land is in France. Why is ETA not active there?

[Vasily Zaitsev]

Because this "nation" has never existed before, the language and the whole national feeling was something taken out of thin air in the XIX century following the nationalism spree across all Europe. Spanish or Castillian is a language derived from Basque. The reconquista of Spain from the moors was a big part due to the basques. There would be no Spain without the basque.
This has been anyhow explained before here.

Just think about this...all these common spanish last names ended in "-ez" are basque..all these Gonzalez, Fernandez, Hernandez, Sanchez, Perez, etc, etc, etc...

Of course the Basque nation didn't exist as such before the 19th century. The very concept of the nation as we know it today did not exist.

Care to cite sources for your claim of Spanish's Basque origins? As far as I know, Spanish is a Romance language. Basque (barring post-contact borrowed words) isn't even an Indo-European language--let alone one descended from Latin.

[Felix the Cat]

Did the Muslims of Spain all speak Arabic/berber, or was latin still widely spoken by former christians throughout that period?

[Ambrosio Spinola]

Spanish or Castillian is a bastard mix between Basque and Latin. Castillian was originated in what would be today Basque core areas. What we today understand as Basque was hapazardly concocted late XIX Century and early XX by Sabino Arana and his cronies during a time were romantic nationalism was much in vogue throughout most of Europe by pulling together several very distinct basque dialects spoken through different valleys.
When I was refering to a Basque nation not existing before (or thereafter) the XIX Century I meant that not even a proto Dutchy or something of sorts had ever existed in that region. The Catalans had at least a County (No indpendent Kingdom alas). One would have to go back to the days of Pompeius the Great to find Bascones getting gifted land around his founded city of Pompaello (nowadays Pamplona) as reward for acting as auxiliaries for Roman legions, having lived before in the middle Pyrinees. The actual Basqueland though was given them, again, by Romans for much of the same work during the Cantabric wars of the Divine Augustus.

[Ambrosio Spinola]

A lot of historic Basque land is in France. Why is ETA not active there?

Because France has a much tougher, and effective, stance regaring provincial drift. Look at Corsica, Langedoc, Britanny, etc...not a word. Spain has been much more in the mood since Franco towards understanding and so it serves.