ABSTRACT
The chapter provides an account of the evolution and turning points in the war of memories in the public sphere in the aftermath of ETA. We analyse how the policy of memory used by the Basque government is currently founded on an ‘integrative memory’ aiming at confusing perpetrators and victims, and equating their collective sufferings, by highlighting the image of the collective victimisation of the Basques. Those who supported the strategy of violence, together with the moderate Basque nationalists who controlled the Basque regional executive, aim to blur the category of victims of terrorism and the terrorist nature of the violence inflicted upon them. The hegemonic public narrative aims to put these victims on a par with those who suffered from other forms of ‘violence’ that are considered to be equivalent: that of state terrorism or even that of the police in its fight against terrorism. This narrative especially affects how the media, the political class and academia interpret the trauma of terrorist violence in the Basque Country.
