A CRITICAL RESPONSE ESSAY ON THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE ETHNO-NATIONALIST TERRORISM OF THE ETA

Kıvanç Sağır - 2005

‘Terror harbors evil intentions against our ability to live in ease with democracy.’ Ana Palacio, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain

Terrorism is destruction of people or property by people not acting on behalf of an established government for the purpose of redressing a real or imaginary injustice attributed to an established government and aimed directly or indirectly at an established government (Hill). Most official definitions of terrorism also contain the word "unlawful" or "criminal" as part of the definition. As Daniel Byman (1998) puts it, the most dangerous kind of terrorism is ethno-nationalist terrorism. In this essay we are going to make a criticism of ethno-nationalist terrorism taking the Basque Fatherland and Liberty, the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) as the example, and try to prove that it can never be justified. We will also support this thesis by making some references to the novel The Lone Woman by the Basque author, Bernardo Atxaga.

Ethno-nationalist terrorism, which can have very bad effects for governments and their citizens, may espouse ideological concerns which are closely held beliefs. However, the primary reason for their existence is their identity with an ethnic or national group. These groups are most often minorities and they usually perceive themselves as oppressed or threatened by dominant majority groups (Spencer). They mostly want to establish their own states with the understanding of self-determination. Self-determination is the decision by the people of a nation as to what form of government they shall have, independently, without reference to the wishes of any other nation (IMUNA).

The ETA and its objective is probably the best example for self-determination. It uses terrorism in hopes of forming an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southwest France as seen in the picture on the left. The Basques are a linguistically and culturally distinct Christian group that has lived since the Stone Age in the mountainous region that straddles the border between modern-day Spain and France and have managed to preserve their culture until the present times. The ETA was formed in 1959 by young activists angered by the Spanish dictator Franco’s suppression, which lasted between 1937 and 1975, of the Basque people, in order to replace the regime of Franco with a socialist system. Under Franco, the Spanish government had often met the ETA violence with violence, and terror suspects were sometimes tortured. These increased the attacks of the ETA (Narváez). Later on, especially after the death of Franco in 1975, their objective has become to separate Basque from Spain and to establish a free state. This is because, the Basques, who have enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy over the centuries under Spanish and French rule, but who have never had an own independent state, has no longer wanted to live under the rule of any other state (Narváez). With this objective, the ETA has been in a terrorist struggle against Spain and rarely France.

Like all ethno-nationalist and separatist terrorist groups, the ETA uses demonstratively symbolic acts of violence to generate publicity and rally support by calling attention to the weakness of the government to withstand the nationalist expression they defend and thus embarrass and force it into acceding to the group’s demands (Hoffman). At the revolutionary extreme the ETA wishes to take over the government from the Spanish and control the state for their own benefit. This understanding is what we call “self-determination”, and the Basques can be right for this. This is because they have their own culture, for instance their literature, music style, cloth style, drinking style are different from the Spanish, own language, Euskera, an ancient one meaning the expression of Basque “essence” and the mythical bearer of Basque national culture, and even own genetic features (Narváez). However, they are not right when making violent acts against the Spanish. Such violent acts do not make them gain anything. By terrorism, the ETA can only end the lives of its enemies by murdering them.

Besides its enemies, The ETA also destroys the lives of its own members by forcing them to carry out all the wild duties they are given. If a member does not carry out a duty, behaves in a way contrary to the rules of the organization or wants to leave it, he/she is punished being dismissed from the organization and the relation with his/her is cut off; shortly that member is left alone. We see such a situation in the novel The Lone Woman. In the novel, the dramatic story of a former ethno-nationalist terrorist, who is condemned to be left alone by the people around her, of the ETA is impressively presented by the author, Atxaga. When presenting this, Atxaga makes a penetrating look into the meanings of the words freedom, nation, oppression and servitude in the ETA.

In this part, we are going to talk about the loneliness of the hero of the novel, Irene. Irene is a 37-year-old Basque woman imprisoned in Barcelona four years ago for terrorist activities on behalf of the ETA. She has just got out of prison and wants to, but there is no one to meet her, because her lover is dead, her husband divorced, her family has disowned her, she has no children. She cannot expect the organization to meet her, either, because just before being jailed she wants to leave the organization, and because of this behavior she is seen as traitor and is consequently left alone by the people in the organization and around her. Atxaga says: “She knew that many of them despised her for leaving the organization and taking on the role of reformed terrorist, but she found it hard to believe that everyone felt like that, without exception” (21). She even calls her family, and on the phone, she tells her father about her suffering that none of her relatives or friends comes to meet her. The author describes her feelings:

Years ago, whenever she came back from a school trip or from a holiday, she would find her parents and brothers at the station, and if her family couldn’t be there, then her friends would meet her. Now, after four years in prison, she had no one… She knew that many of them despised her for leaving the organization and taking on the role of reformed terrorist, but she found it hard to believe that everyone felt like that, that all her friends from before felt like that, without exception. This made her furious. (21)

Nevertheless, she still retains her hope and decides to return her home town of Bilbao in the Basque country.

Other than Irene’s loneliness, the novel also tells of her panic, anxiety, suspicion of others as she faces the world again. She is just out of prison, and now she is back in the world in which, in the past, she was a murderer as a terrorist. This situation makes her feel very anxious. For instance, in the bus taking her to Bilbao, there is a large lady in the next seat, a couple of nuns and two men, and she tries to abstract herself from these people, because it is as if these people know that she is fresh out of prison, an amnestied terrorist, her reputation compromised. She also feels that people are watching her and the police are tracking her. She even remembers a poem in which a man is in the similar situation with her: “The mind of an ex-prisoner... Always returns to prison... In the street, he passes judges, prosecutors and lawyers, and the police, though they don’t know him, look at him more than at anyone else, because his step is not calm or assured, because his step is far too assured... Inside him lives a man condemned for life” (Atxaga 25). Irene is so restless that she cannot prevent, throughout the story, from feeling as if she is tracked by the police and, she always remembers this poem.

After the routine life in prison, she comes face to face with the hardship of life outside. She is often confused about the lifestyle outside. It is even very complex for her how to get to Bilbao, where to buy the bus ticket, how to interpret the timetable. As Atxaga states, “She was used to the rigid prison timetable, to a life that passed, not like a river or a current in the sea, but like the little wheels in a clock, always turning on the same axis, never changing speed, so anything unusual, any uncertainty ,made her feel uneasy” (Atxaga 5). Also, in the jail, she has good friends, such as Margarita, “who is an intelligent, slightly eccentric woman and who intimately tells her stories she lived before the prison to her cellmates” (Atxaga 38), and Antonia, who “looks older than her age as a consequence of the life she leads before she is sent to prison” (Atxaga 13) while she almost has no one outside. That is why, for Irene, the prison is a safer and friendlier, at least easier, place than outside.

This novel also gives us some clues about how the Spanish government deals with the ETA. The hero of the novel, Irene, is not imprisoned somewhere inside the borders of the Basque region, but in Barcelona. Such a proceeding is probably to separate the terrorists from each other and destroy their co-ordination while staying in the jail. Other than this process expressed in the novel, the Spanish government has also outlawed the organizations that provide support to families of jailed ETA members. Since September 11, more than 50 suspected ETA members have been arrested. Spain currently holds 572 ETA members in prison, while France holds 124. (Narváez). Spain has successfully prosecuted hundreds of ETA members in open courtroom proceedings. From 1983 to 1987, the paramilitary Antiterrorist Liberation Groups, which enjoyed covert government support, killed 27 suspected Basque separatists. Also a couple of years ago, the Spanish Supreme Court banned the ETA-linked Batasuna political party (ETA FACT). These are some of the ways that the Spanish officials have handled this problem.

Dealing with ethno-nationalist terrorism requires the kind of engagement, capacity building and cooperative problem solving that conflict resolution practitioners and theorists have been working on for more than generation. When faced with a terrorist attack, national security policy makers invariably have to think about how they should respond in the days, weeks and months that follow. Given the pressing decisions they have to make, their timeframes have to be short. The Spanish government should not meet the ETA’s acts in a violent way, as done under the Franco regime, if they are not compelled, because it will most probably incite the terrorists. On the other hand, the ETA, which has been blamed for murdering, since 1960s, more than 800 victims including politicians, journalists, businessmen, soldiers, judges, policemen, academics and also tourists, must immediately stop terrorizing Spain. The ETA must also take into account that Basque nationalists support its aim but not its terrorist methods (Nash & Auerbach). Consequently, both the ETA and the Spanish government must approach each other with peaceful negotiations.

Ethno-nationalist terrorism, the most dangerous one for a country among the other kinds terrorism, spread by the ETA is totally unacceptable, although its objective can be acceptable. It is an outrageous and unjustifiable disaster on the Spanish and French people and democracy. Every democratic person, in not only Spain or France but also elsewhere in the world, has to condemn these people who want to interfere with the lives of innocent people, producing suffering for hundreds of people, leaving families broken, with or without any objective. The ETA members cannot justify atrocities by claiming that they are not terrorists because they are freedom fighters. If they want to achieve their goals, they have to move in a more democratic and humanistic way. Otherwise, neither the Basques nor the Spanish and the French will gain anything from these murders.

THE ETHNO-NATIONALIST TERRORISM OF THE ETA AND THE PKK

Kıvanç Sağır - 2005

Terrorism is destruction of people or property by people not acting on behalf of an established government for the purpose of redressing a real or imaginary injustice attributed to an established government and aimed directly or indirectly at an established government (Hill). Most official definitions of terrorism also contain the word "unlawful" or "criminal" as part of the definition. There are some categories of terrorism such as revolutionary, political, religious, social, domestic, transnational, ethnocentric and ethno-nationalist terrorism. Ethno-nationalist terrorism, as Hoffman (1999) puts it, is also called “traditional” or “ideological” terrorism. Ethno-nationalist terrorism may espouse ideological concerns which are closely held beliefs. However, the primary reason for their existence is their identity with an ethnic or national group. These groups are most often minorities and they usually perceive themselves as oppressed or threatened by dominant majority groups (Spencer). They mostly want to establish their own states with the understanding of self-determination, which means the decision by the people of a nation as to what form of government they shall have, independently, without reference to the wishes of any other nation (IMUNA).

The two separatist terror organizations, the ETA and the PKK, can be regarded as ethno-nationalist terrorist groups. Both the ETA and the PKK aims to lead to the establishment their own countries with the understanding of self-determination. The ETA demands the separation of the Basque region from Spain and France, while the PKK demands that of the so called Kurdish region from Turkey. Despite the similarity between the aims and the methods of these two groups, there are some certain differences between the grounds of the ETA and the PKK.

The ETA has used terrorism in hopes of forming an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. The Basques are a linguistically and culturally distinct Christian group that has lived since the Stone Age in the mountainous region that straddles the border between modern-day Spain and France and have managed to preserve their culture until the present times. The Basques have their own culture, for instance their literature, music style, cloth style, drinking style are different from the Spanish, own language, Euskera, an ancient one meaning the expression of Basque “essence” and the mythical bearer of Basque national culture, and even own genetic features (Narváez).

The Basque Fatherland and Liberty (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) was formed in 1959 by young activists angered by the Spanish dictator Franco’s suppression, which lasted between 1937 and 1975, of the Basque people, in order to replace the regime of Franco with a socialist system. Under Franco, the Spanish government had often met the ETA violence with violence, and terror suspects were sometimes tortured. These increased the attacks of the ETA. Later on, especially after the death of Franco in 1975, their objective has become to separate Basque from Spain and to establish a free state. At the revolutionary extreme, the ETA currently wishes to take over the government from the Spanish and control the state for their own benefit. This is because, the Basques, who have enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy over the centuries under Spanish and French rule, but who have never had an own independent state, has no longer wanted to live under the rule of any other state (Narváez). This understanding is what we call “self-determination”. With this objective, the ETA has been in a terrorist struggle against Spain and rarely France.

On the other hand, the hope of the PKK is forming an independent Kurdish state under the authority of the current leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, in the Mesopotamia region, which the Kurdish calls Kurdistan and which covers the territories of eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran, and parts of Syria. The Kurds are a group of about 10 to 15 million people united by ethnicity and language who hail from so-called Kurdistan. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims; others follow other forms of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and an ancient Kurdish faith. The Kurdish, like the Basques, has continued living under the rule of the Turkish states throughout the history. However, the Kurdish people, in contrast to the Basques, had been living with satisfaction under the Turkish rule and had regarded themselves as Turkish. The Kurdish had never demanded to get separated from the Turkish rule until the 1920s. In the 1920s, particularly after the establishment of the independent national Turkish state and the French occupation of Syria, the Kurdish started to attack to Turkey by taking the support of the foreign countries mostly France (Öztürk, Kasadaki Dosyalar). These attacks were mainly in the form of rebellion –the most famous of these rebellions is that of Sheikh Said- and continued until the 1970s.

The Kurdistan Worker's Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan) was born out of the leftist student organizations in Turkey in the 1970s. The current leader of the organization, Abdullah Öcalan, was a Kurdish student at Ankara University's Political Science Faculty. He got the Marxist-Leninist ideas here. Öcalan says, “I was about 20 years old. I was in a very pacifist position. In the contradictions of Ankara, I was also somehow conservative. I was attending Necip Fazıl Kısakürek’s conferences and I remember I was very affected of his ideas. I was dealing mostly with bourgeois philosophy and reading this kind of stuff. I was also performing my ritual prayer in Maltepe mosque. 1970 was just the turning point of everything for me. That year I got a book called “The Alphabet of Socialism”. Everything changed for me after reading this book” (Birand, Apo ve PKK). THKP-C (Turkey People's Liberation Party-Front) leader, Mahir Çayan’s ideas influenced Ocalan. According to Mumcu “Çayan saw armed struggle as the only way to revolution. For him, without vanguard, armed resistance they did not have chance to make a revolution. For this reason, they had to establish a political party.” As a result, on 27 November 1978, PKK was formally but clandestinely established in the province of Diyarbakır with the goal of the establishment of an independent socialist Kurdish state. It is true to say that the objective of the PKK, similar to that of the ETA, includes “self-determination” of the Kurdish.

Like all ethno-nationalist and separatist terrorist groups, the ETA and the PKK uses demonstratively symbolic acts of violence to generate publicity and rally support by calling attention to the weakness of the government to withstand the nationalist expression they defend and thus embarrass and force it into acceding to the group’s demands. Robbery, extortion, kidnapping, bombing and murdering are both the ETA’s and the PKK’s main tactics along with breaking their own ceasefires. Since its first attack on August 15, 1984, the PKK’s 18.000 attacks resulted in over 30.000 murders in only Turkey while the ETA murdered about 800 people in the last forty five years in Spain and France (Terror Organizations in Europe). Moreover, in the last years, both of these groups have started to effectively sabotage Turkish and Spain tourism by murdering many tourists from other countries.

Besides their enemies, the ETA and the PKK have also destroyed the lives of their own members by forcing them to carry out all the wild duties they are given. When their members do not carry out their duties by entirely leaving their private lives, they are regarded as traitor. Bernard Atxaga, a Basque novel author, in his novel “The Lone Woman”, presents the dramatic story of a former ethno-nationalist terrorist, who is condemned to be left alone by the people around her, of the ETA. Atxaga says “If a member does not carry out a duty, behaves in a way contrary to the rules of the organization or wants to leave it, he/she is damned, punished being dismissed from the organization, and the relation with his/her is cut off; shortly that member is left alone.” On the other hand, as Osman Öcalan, the brother of Abdullah Öcalan, states, “the lifestyle in the PKK has become restricted; this did not permit different opinions to be suggested. PKK did not let people’s private life, moreover, it asked from the people sacrificed lives. Every one who joined the struggle had to leave their social lives. This situation was obstructing PKK’s embracement everybody.” Moreover, the PKK has killed many Kurdish villages in the Southeast declaring them as “state collaborators” (Kerkük Kurdistane).

In order to widen their base of supporters for their terrorist attacks and to make their voice heard, the ETA and the PKK made agreements with political parties in Turkey or Spain. Although the ETA-linked Batasuna party was banned by the Spanish Supreme Court, the DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front), with which Abdullah Öcalan signed a protocol of cooperation at the end of 1996, has still been working with the aim of supporting the current PKK and the independence of the so-called Kurdistan. What's more, it is stated by the authorities that the ETA and the PKK has made some agreements on cooperation with each other. For example, in August 1983, the representatives of the Catalonia Tierra Libra, the Basque, the ETA, the Corsica Liberation Movement, the IRA, and the PKK have held a meeting. In 1970’s the ETA militants were trained in El Fetih Camp in Palestine, and in the same year THKP-C militants were there as well. Moreover, the PKK-linked DEV-SOL and the ETA made a joint declaration in Hamburg on 2 January 1984 (Terror Organizations in Europe). With these cooperations, both the ETA and the PKK have got much stronger and increased their lethal attacks against Spain and Turkey.

The ETA and the PKK have been significant dangers for Spain and Turkey for years. Since both Spain and Turkey have not been individually able to cope with these dangers, it would probably be the best for both of these countries to make collaboration against the ETA and the PKK, which are globally linked with each other. This is because dealing with ethno-nationalist terrorism requires the kind of engagement, capacity building and cooperative problem solving that conflict resolution practitioners and theorists have been working on for more than generation. When faced with a terrorist attack, national security policy makers invariably have to think about how they should respond in the days, weeks and months that follow. Given the pressing decisions they have to make, their timeframes have to be short. Otherwise such terrorist acts will cover around us for much more years.