:23:02
If we had a referendum here
on the Basque Country,
:23:07
you'd see that we want to be French
:23:08
and that we don't want independence.
:23:11
In lparralde (French Basque Country)
there are 260,000 people.
:23:18
Aquarter of them speak Basque.
:23:20
What does that represent
amidst 60 million French?
:23:26
Basque is not
an official language.
:23:28
It's being crushed.
:23:30
It's going to disappear.
:23:32
As Basques,
we do not exist.
:23:36
The French Basque Country
needs a legal identity,
:23:40
and recognition
by the French Republic.
:23:43
That's why we want
a Basque "Département".
:23:46
The creation of
a Basque "Département"
:23:48
depends on what happens
:23:52
on the other side of the Bidasoa,
provided the violence ceases.
:23:57
This is the old oak
which was revered in Guernica,
:24:00
the sacred town of the Basques,
as a symbol of its liberties
:24:04
which, in the form of laws,
:24:06
gave rise to the oldest
democracy in Europe.
:24:25
Guernica was bombed by the German
Condor Legion, allies of Franco,
:24:28
during the Spanish Civil War.
654 people died.