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Ertzaintza - Basque Autonomous Police

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Ertzaintza - Basque Autonomous Police Empty Ertzaintza - Basque Autonomous Police

Post  Les-Art Wed 24 Jun 2009, 11:40 pm

Hi Guys,
Came across some interesting information on this force and thought I would share it with you.

Historical snippets;
On the creation of the Autonomous BASQUE Region in Spain during 1936, the Minister of the Interior Mr. Teleforo de Monzon wanted a local Police force. He organised recruitment of young men of athletic ability, who coincidently were members of the Basque National Party. Initially 400 men were recruited.

The task of organising the Police was given to Jose Maria Pikazar, who had made in depth studies of the workings of forces across Great Britain, France, Germany and the U.S.A., he felt that being as mobile as possible was the modern way forward. He set about to create the first motorised Police force in Spain, however with the Spanish Civil War looming enough cars could not be obtained, so thoughts turned to the U.S. Highway Patrols and it was decided that motorcycles with Radios would suffice. It is not clear if every one was issued a motorcycle ,however the first uniform is described as follows;
Brown Leather Jacket, Cap, Riding Breeches, High Boots and a revolver.

As the Spanish Civil War continued and encrouched into the area, eventually the Police were used as despatch riders and couriers as their Radios were stronger and more modern than some of those issued to the Army.

The Basque region has unique local language and traditions, so the force title of 'ERTZAINTZA' is used on all vehicles and insignias . Basque seems to be the ONLY languague used for this.
One of the traditions for the region is the wearing of a large locally made beret , the TXAPELA, made famous during the first Carlist War of 1835, so when during the troubles of the 1980's the Basque government wanted to distance themselves from the Guardia Civil and Policia Nacional it was felt that the 'Erzaintza' should look as different as possible to the spanish police. Mr. Ramon Labayen, a well known Toy Soldier Collector, designed a new uniform incorporating the Txapela ,for the first time as the official headgear ,which is still used today.

The current uniform and insignias are still unique and make them stand out from other Police across the world.

Here are the current Ranks , insignias and uniforms .

Ertzaintza - Basque Autonomous Police Basque10
Ertzaintza - Basque Autonomous Police Basque11

The uniform illustrations are the official ones from the Ertzaintza and are copyrighted to them. I have added the details ,individual insignias and produced the layout.

Hope this is of interest to some of you.

Best Regards,

Les

Les-Art

Posts : 261
Join date : 2009-05-02

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Post  Sean Thu 25 Jun 2009, 2:33 pm

Very nice Les, thanks for the information

Sean

Posts : 1129
Join date : 2008-04-03

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