To Basque Public Opinion
We the following signatories, friends of Gorka Agirre, in this moment that he is being investigated by the Spanish Justice for connivance with violence and that already some media have condemned him, we want to declare the following:
- We are hurt seeing Gorka Agirre, a person with an accredited and clean profile well known in Euskadi, being treated as a vulgar criminal, being submitted to surveillance, to the interested filtering of parts of a supposedly secret judicial summary. What sarcasm that a person who has appeared in the lists of ETA, who has been menaced by ETA, who has seen several of his friends assassinated by ETA, is now accused of participating in the collection of the so-called “revolutionary tax”!
- The political trajectory of Gorka Agirre has always been guided by two principles: his commitment with his country, Euskadi, and his radical rejection of violence. This commitment, which has led him to militate for more than 40 years with a political party like the PNV, was also exercised during the Franco regime, in exile and in clandestine conditions. And in those difficult conditions he was not led into the attraction of armed struggle, which is something that many of those who now profess pacifism can not boast about.
- His knowledge of the underground conditions of exile made that many people, of all types and political condition would approach him with the aim of obtaining advice or an explanation in moments of uncertainty with regard to the menace of blackmail for money or kidnapping. Some of the people who have publicly criticised him and condemned him in private have passed through his office or have met with him to know what to do. The list, to be true, is very long. Gorka Agirre has worked for all these people unselfishly trying to offer human aid.
- What is perfectly clear for us, and we are prepared to “put our hand in the fire” for Gorka, is that all these measures he may have taken, reunions or meetings that he may have had, always at the demand of the menaced persons and with the clear objective of putting a stop to violence in Euskadi, were undertaken with the sole objective of working for peace. Something for which Gorka has relentlessly worked for since a very long time. This is something which is well known in Euskadi, by those who have passed through Government in Madrid and those who have militated in ETA.
- Because of this, we the undersigned are one with all and each of the interventions that Gorka Agirre has undertaken in favour of peace and the freedom of the Basque Country.
DANOK GARA GORKA - WE ARE ALL GORKA