The conflict took place mostly on Spanish soil, although to a smaller degree it was also present in France, which was primarily used as a safe haven by ETA members.

"[14]According to Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla, the narrative of the existence of a secular conflict between Basques and Spaniards has been one of the most used tropes by ETA and the abertzale left as pretext for the activity of the former.

[24] According to Fernández Soldevilla, in spite of the end of the armed activity, the narrative of the basque conflict, fixed and divulgated by abertzale organic intellectuals such as historians Francisco Letamendia and Jose Mari Lorenzo, publicists such as Iñaki Egaña or Eduardo Renobales or journalists such as Luis Núñez Astrain,[25] would be still useful as suggestive message in order to delegitimize the current democratic system, mixing victims with victimaries and equating the Basque case to real conflicts such as those of South Africa and Northern Ireland.

[31] Amaiur Senator Urko Aiartza and Julen Zabalo have written that There is no unanimous agreement when it comes to determining the reasons for the so-called Basque conflict.

According to different sources, it is either a long conflict with historical roots, an instrument of Basque nationalist politics, an attempt to impose a privilege, or evidence of the state's obstinacy.

Whichever of these may be the case, an understanding of the historical relations between the Basque provinces and the Spanish and French states is indispensable in order to explain the present conflict.

The Basques have managed to preserve their own identifying characteristics such as their own culture and language throughout the centuries and today a large part of the population shares a collective consciousness and a desire to be self-governed, either with further political autonomy or full independence.

For instance, the football club Athletic Bilbao, maintains a signing policy of only recruiting Basque born or raised players.

[36] ETA slowly became more active and powerful, and in 1973 the organisation was able to kill the president of the Government and possible successor of Franco, Luis Carrero Blanco.

[39] On the other side, the death of Franco elevated Juan Carlos I to the throne, who chose Adolfo Suárez as Prime Minister of Spain.

This was due to the call to abstention by EAJ-PNV and the creation of a coalition of Abertzale left organisations brought together to advocate for "no" in the referendum, as they felt that the constitution did not meet their demands for independence.

Around 1975, the first far right paramilitary organizations (to which former OAS members joined) that fought against ETA and its supporters had been created, such as the Triple A (Alianza Apostólica Anticomunista), Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey, Batallón Vasco-español (BVE) and Antiterrorismo ETA (ATE);[41][n 1] 41 deaths and 36 wounded have been reported in attacks blamed on paramilitary far-right organisations in the 1977–1982 period.

Days after the coup, ETA's faction politiko-militarra started its disbanding, with most of its members joining Euskadiko Ezkerra, a leftist nationalist party away from the Abertzale left.

General elections were held in 1982, and Felipe González, from the Socialist Workers' Party became the new president, while Herri Batasuna won two seats.

[39] After Felipe González's victory, the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL), death squads established by officials belonging to the Spanish government, were created.

[44] After the end of the dirty war period, France agreed to cooperate with the Spanish authorities in the arrest and extradition of ETA members.

After the arrest, the government started to investigate Herri Batasuna's ties with ETA, and the coalition changed its name to Euskal Herritarrok, with Arnaldo Otegi as their leader.

Following disagreements over the internal organization of Batasuna, a group broke away to form a separate political party, Aralar, present mainly in Navarre.

Despite the claims of peace talks ending in December, when ETA broke the truce with a massive car bomb at Madrid-Barajas Airport, a new round of conversations took place in May 2007.

It was organized by the Basque citizens' group Lokarri and included leaders of Basque parties,[65] as well as six international personalities known for their work in the field of politics and pacification: Kofi Annan (former UN Secretary-General), Bertie Ahern (former Prime Minister of Ireland), Gro Harlem Brundtland (international leader in sustainable development and public health, former Prime Minister of Norway), Pierre Joxe (former Interior Minister of France), Gerry Adams (president of Sinn Féinn, member of the Irish Parliament) and Jonathan Powell (British diplomat who served as the first Downing Street Chief of Staff).

Tony Blair (former Prime Minister of the UK) could not be present due to commitments in the Middle East,[66] but he supported the final declaration.

Former US President Jimmy Carter and former US senator George J. Mitchell (involved in the Northern Ireland peace process) also backed this declaration.

[67] The conference resulted in a five-point statement that included a plea for ETA to renounce any armed activities and to demand instead negotiations with the Spanish and French authorities to end the conflict.

[70] On that date, civilian 'go-betweens' (Artisans of Peace) handed a list of 8 coordinates to the authorities which showed the locations of weapons caches in southwestern France used by the group.

[71][72] The caches were reported to have contained 120 firearms, about 3 tonnes of explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition,[71] which were seized by the Spanish and French authorities.

The number of deaths caused by ETA is consistent among different sources, such as the Spanish Interior Ministry, the Basque government, and most major news agencies.

Although this killing was attributed by Ernest Lluch to ETA in 2000, as revealed in El País,[75] the attack was committed by the DRIL (Directorio Revolucionario Ibérico de Liberación).

[76][77] Some organizations such as the Colectivo de Víctimas del Terrorismo en el País Vasco raise the death toll of ETA's victims to 952.

[79] Sources have suggested ETA responsibility in the crash of Iberia Airlines Flight 610 at Monte Oiz (Bilbao) on 19 February 1985 with 148 killed [80] Regarding the Basque National Liberation Movement side the Euskal Memoria foundation, linked to the Abertzale left,[81][82] and born in 2009 with the proclaimed purpose of having a database in order to "counter the lies from the State",[81][83] list the number of deaths on their side as 474 in the period between 1960 and 2010.

Most of the lists also include an undefined number of suicides caused by the conflict, coming from former ETA members, tortured people or policemen.