Supervisors info:
Κωνσταντίνος Ράπτης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Μαρία Παπαθανασίου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Ευάνθης Χατζηβασιλείου, Καθηγητής, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
This postgraduate thesis is an attempted comparative analysis of the actions of the armed wings of the irish republican and the basque secessionist movements, during the post war era (1969-2007).
It is not an one sided analysis though. Alongside the comparison between the armed wings (the Provisional IRA and ETA) which is the main one, the author attempts a second comparison between the political wings of those movements, the Sinn Fein party and the political front of Herri Batasuna respectively.
The thesis examines the social and political background in which those movements were formed and carried out their armed and political campaigns. The goal is to examine their actions through a broader spectrum and from different points of view, espacially considering their armed campaing. This approach gives emphasis to a series of important aspects, crucial in both movements cases, such as: the historical background, the aspect of social movement, the sociopolitical impact of their action, the reaction of the british and spanish state respectively, the ideological evolution of those movements, the secessionist aspect, and finally the outcome of the armed campaign of the IRA and ETA, as well as the political campaign of Sinn Fein and Herri Batasuna.
Each of the aforementioned issues covers a seperate chapter of the thesis, in order to have a broader understanding of the subject, beyond the narrow terrorist aspect of the movements' actions.
The events of the examined period are without a doubt of historical interest, but they have also shaped and defined the current sociopolitical situation in Northern Ireland and the Basque Autonomous Community.
The campaings of the Provisional IRA and ETA have many similarities and common elements, which have been extensively studied in both historical and political academic research. For that reason, the comparative analysis of the present thesis focuses primarily in the elements that differentiate the two cases, because as this thesis suggests, these are the crucial factors that lead to the different outcome between the IRA and ETA campaigns.
Finally, the thesis has an extra goal. It is an attempt to stir a further and deeper research (from a more social oriented standpoint) of the present day phenomenon of reemergence of the local and regional nationalist agendas and secessionist aspirations in Europe. After all, it is in the same regions as those examined here, the United Kingdom and the Iberian peninsula, that the main cases of that reemergence can be found today.
Keywords:
IRA, ETA, Irish, republicanism, Basque, separatism, Troubles, terrorism, armed struggle, secession
