Bilbao; the rhythm of terrorism.BILBAO The Rhythm of Terrorism Recent escalations of Basque Basque Spanish Vasco Member of a people of unknown origin living in Spain and France along the Bay of Biscay and in the western Pyrenees mountains in the region of the Basque Country. About 850,000 true Basques live in Spain and another 130,000 in France. terrorism may come to threaten the structure of the 11-year-old Spanish democracy. The Basques Basques (băsks), people of N Spain and SW France. There are about 2 million Basques in the three Basque provs. and Navarre, Spain; some 250,000 in Labourd, Soule, and Lower Navarre, France; and communities of various sizes in Central and South have for centuries inhabited this part of Spain and certain adjoining frontier districts of France over the Pyrenees. They speak their own language, whose origin is unknown. The Basques call their homeland Euskadi, and claim it comprises seven Spanish provinces, including Navarre. Three of these provinces were given an autonomous parliament by the central government seven years ago. But Basque nationalists say this is not enough. For a while, most Basque nationalists were willing to negotiate peacefully with Spanish premier Felipe Gonzalez. But with partial recognition of Basque claims, as the rhythm of terrorism works, the extreme wing of Basque nationalism Basque nationalism is a movement with roots in the Carlism and the loss by the laws of 1839 and 1876 of the Ancien Regime relationship between the Basque provinces and the crown of Spain when the Spanish government revoked part of the fueros after the Third Carlist War. has increasingly taken control. Its terrorist arm, the ETA e·ta n. Symbol  The seventh letter of the Greek alphabet.ETA estimated transmitting ability. , has been able to mount some impressive attacks of late, especially bombings of the armed forces and the police in Madrid, who, in turn, have reacted sharply to the rising level of violence. Basque political leadership has passed to the radical party Herri Batasuna ("A People United'), and its green, yellow, and white colors are splashed over public buildings and industrial structures throughout Basque territory. The party captured 200,000 votes in recent legislative elections in Navarre, but its five seats in the Cortes remain empty because it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the central government. Herri Batasuna's program calls for practical independence, including the withdrawal of all Spanish troops and police from the Basque provinces Basque Provinces A region comprising three provinces of northern Spain on the Bay of Biscay. It borders on France in the northeast along the western Pyrenees. . The Spanish authorities' task of containment has been made easier of late by a change in the attitude of the French government, which now actively cooperates in combatting terrorist activity, arresting refugee Basques and returning them across the frontier. Basque nationalists, however, paraded ostentatiously os·ten·ta·tious adj. Characterized by or given to ostentation; pretentious. See Synonyms at showy. os in the smart seaside resort seaside resort n → playa seaside resort sea n → station f balnéaire seaside resort sea n → Badeort of St. Jean de Luz recently, reminding the French that there are also militant Basques among them. |
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