On October 20, 2011 three masked members of ETA announced “the definitive end of (our) armed activities”. For more than 40 years, this terrorist organization had been murdering, maiming and extorting people in Spain, in its drive for the independence of the Basque Country (called Euskadi in vernacular), one of the Northern territories
among Spain’s 17 autonomous regions. From 2011 on, ETA has remained inactive. Its existence had become an anachronism in the political history of the European Union. The demise of ETA marks the beginning of a period of gradual normalization in the Basque society.