LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Basque Nationalism
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The recent decline of radical Basque nationalism has been accentuated at both the military and political levels. ETA has not killed anyone since May 2003 and its leaders have been arrested repeatedly in coordinated operations of the Spanish and French police and security forces. Long gone are the days when the French authorities refused to extradite ETA members on the ground that ETA was an internal Spanish problem. In fact, it is the cooperation in the areas of justice and home affairs at European Union level that has contributed to pistols remaining silent for over 1,000 days.
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Basque nationalism was founded by Sabino Arana in 1893. Historically, three main traits have characterized its ideology. These are: centripetism, regenerationism, and ethnocentrism. They have in turn spawned a series of strategic-political aspects. But the three traits have stood out, as they have directly conditioned the origins of ETA, as well as its subsequent development.
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At the end of the XIXth century, basque nationalism took a new form. Sabino Arana Goiri drew the Ikuriña (the basque flag) in 1893, founded the National Basque Party (NBP) in 1895 and created the basque patriotic song. He ... wrote a huge political literature which will inspire basque nationalist all along the XXth century. In the first decades of the XXth century, NBP became the main political force in the four southern provinces.
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Some opponents of Basque nationalism have adopted a slightly different tack, by promoting a regional cuisine whose borders cross-cut those of the general Basque area. Thus the Navarran Government and a significant number of locals are now keen to substantiate a sense of ‘Navarraness’ by developing its cultural distinctiveness, including its foodways. Hence, in the last decade, several subsidized books have appeared on ‘Navarran cuisine’, a promotional tour of Navarran gastronomy was held throughout Spain, and regional journalists devote feet of column inches to articles lauding local products and their traditional methods of production. In the late 1980s, local chefs even came up with their own answer to la nueva cocina vasca by collectively launching, with the aid of the regional press, ‘la nueva cocina navarra’9. It is noteworthy that the only event in the 2004 calendar of the London branch of the Instituto Cervantes (the Spanish Government body which promotes Spanish culture overseas) which included a free reception was the talk on Navarre given by the President of its Deputation: the Instituto programme stated that his ‘comprehensive analysis of Navarre today’ would be followed by ‘a Food Sampling Session of Navarrese top quality products including asparagus, roasted red peppers, cheese, wines and liqueurs’.
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Payne, Stanley G. 'Catalan and Basque nationalism: Contrasting patterns', in Shlomo Ben-Ami, Yoav Peled, and Alberto Spektorowski (eds) Ethnic Challenges to the Modern Nation State. New York : St. Martin's Press, 2000
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ETA, THE ARMED wing of radical Basque nationalism, called a ceasefire on 17 September which is being compared to the peace deal in Northern Ireland. ETA and Herri Batasuna (HB), the Basque equivalent of Sinn Féin, have always seen the two situations as very similar and believe the comparison is valid.
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Basque Nationalism