FUNDACIÓN VÍCTIMAS DEL TERRORISMO 94 - ENGLISH

EDUCATION, CULTURE AND COMMUNITY LIFE 17 Council, Iñigo García; the Director-Gen- eral for Human Rights and the Basque Government’s Victim Support Officer, Ainhoa Zugasti; the Director-General for Human Rights and Democratic Coexist- ence at the Provincial Council of Gipuz- koa, Jon Gambra; the Deputy Defence Representative, Colonel José Chain; the Chief Superintendent of the National Po- lice in Gipuzkoa, María Teresa Herraez; the Commander-in-Chief of the Civil Guard, Pablo Lamberto, and the Direc- tor of the Memorial Centre for Victims of Terrorism, Florencio Domínguez. Also present were the patron of the FVT and President of the Association of State Security Forces, Francisco Zaragoza, as well as the victim of terrorism Eva Pato. TRAGEDY AND SOLIDARITY ON 11 MARCH The exhibition, curated by EFE journal- ists Laura Camacho and Sagrario Orte- ga, specialists in home affairs reporting, brings together 67 photographs from the agency’s documentary archive. The images encapsulate the memory of the deadliest jihadist attacks ever committed on European soil, which reflect the soli- darity of the public and the coordinated response that was mobilised in the face of a tragedy of such magnitude. A visual narrative that also highlights the role of the victims as a symbol of dignity. “The 11 March Attacks: Memory Of Pain And Solidarity” came to the city of San Sebastián thanks to the collaboration of the Basque Government’s Department of Justice and Human Rights, the Victims of Terrorism Foundation, the EFE News Agency and San Sebastián City Council. At the pre-opening press conference, the president of the FVT, Juan Francisco Benito, emphasised that the exhibition demonstrates that “remembrance, as well as being a democratic duty, is an act of justice and coexistence”. He also noted that “the dignity of the victims and the memory of their families must take prec- edence above all else”, according to a re- port by the EFE news agency. For her part, the Deputy Minister for Justice and Human Rights, Arritxu Marañon, emphasised the importance of carrying out “work on remembrance, jus- tice and reparation”, aimed particularly at showing new generations the real effects of terrorism. Councillor Iñigo García added that the images on display “are not intended to reopen old wounds”, but rather to prevent them from being forgot- ten and to acknowledge the members of the public who responded with humanity in the face of barbarism. TRIBUTE TO THE EIGHT BASQUE VICTIMS OF JIHAD As was the case during its previous run at the Abando Cultural Centre in Bilbao, the exhibition dedicated a special sec- tion to the eight Basque victims of jihad- ist terrorism, four of whom were from Gipuzkoa. Among them was José Ramón Moreno Isarch, a native of Irún, who was trav- elling with his girlfriend, María Teresa Mora, on one of the trains attacked on 11 March. Both lost their lives that day. Af- ter more than a decade together, they had planned to marry in November 2004. The exhibition also paid tribute to 24-year-old Magie Álvarez, an employee at La Cantina, the hospitality business previously run by her mother in Zarautz, as well as to the guide and teacher Mikel Essery, founder of the Banoa Didaiak agency. Both died in 2007 in Yemen when the tourist convoy they were trav- elling in was attacked by a car bomb. The fourth person from Gipuzkoa to be remembered was Iván Illarramendi, from Zarautz, who was murdered alongside his Chilean wife, Loren Garcovich, on 7 October 2023 during the Hamas attack on the Kissufim kibbutz, near the Gaza Strip.