Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
), commonly known as IK, was a Basque nationalist paramilitary organization operating in the Northern Basque Country, founded in 1973 by Philippe Bidart and other Basque activists. To date, 1982 remains as their most active year, with 32 attacks; despite having mostly targeted tourist developments, it has also assassinated a number of French police personnel. In 1984, they attacked the Biarritz airport before the arrival of the French president François Mitterrand, who was accused by IK of "not respecting the
Basque culture
The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Bas ...
and national rights".
Despite sharing the same goals and methods, it held an uneasy relation with
ETA
Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...
, a more powerful organization based in the
Southern Basque Country
The Southern Basque Country ( eu, Hegoalde, Hego Euskal Herria; es, Hegoalde, País Vasco y Navarra, País Vasco peninsular) is a term used to refer to the Basque territories within Spain as a unified whole.
Name
In Basque language, natives h ...
, mostly because ETA has used
Iparralde
The French Basque Country, or Northern Basque Country ( eu, Iparralde (), french: Pays basque, es, País Vasco francés) is a region lying on the west of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Since 1 January 2017, it constitu ...
as a hideout and did not want to provoke the French Government in this regard.
In 1998 it declared a unilateral truce, which broke when in 2000 it attacked a police station in
Bayonne. To date, it has not claimed any more actions, but another group, Irrintzi (probably numbering no more than one cell), followed IK's path in the French Basque Country by starting an on-off campaign against tourist targets.
In 2007 the leader and founder of IK Philippe Bidart was set free after serving prison since 1988.
IK members Killed in Action (KIA)
* Txomin Olhagarai (1980)
* Ramuntxo Arruiz (1980)
* Didier Laffite (1984)
* Maddi Hegi (1987)
* Cristophe Isteke (1987)
* Jean Louis Larre, ''Popo'' (disappeared since 1983)
See also
*
Politics of France
The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic ...
*
Terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
Bibliography
* ''Iparretarrak Histoire d'une organisation politique armée'', Eneko Bidegain, 2007, Gatuzain, .