On 11 September, the 51st day of hunger strike took place in Markina-Xemein Jose Mari Lejardi Kareaga Gabixola. The Basque Parliament wants the Basque Parliament to take the initiative in this case, and it will continue to do so until the investigation is launched.

How did you join this case of Iruña Veleia?

It's a very special story. I knew the theme of Iruña Veleia through the newspapers. It was a first satisfying piece of news, which found vestiges of the Basque era in the Roman era, but a few months later they said that Iruña Veleia's was a fraud. I felt miserable, but nothing else. Three years ago, however, I attended a concentration that took place in the Arriaga on the occasion of the incidents of the independence of Catalonia. The march in Catalonia was so big and so massive that I saw that there would be firewood, and my proposal was to make a hunger strike in Gernika to show our solidarity with the Basques. When the assembly ended, I went to the one I had responsibility for, and I told him that I had an idea and that I wanted to help, and he summoned me to an assembly. A number of groups met in the meeting: So I'm sure I'm going to go back to that. I'm going to go back to that. Patxi Alaña told me that he had an approach and I explained my proposal, but he did not take it into consideration, that this was not possible in today’s democracy and that today neither the hunger strike influenced it. But Patxi Alaña listened to me and invited me to continue attending the meetings. Three people dared to go on a hunger strike for the Catalan people. We spent a week in the Astra Culture House of Gernika. It was a very enriching week, and there I realized Iruña Veleia.

What was it like?

Patxi Alaña has been on the bench for twelve years, and he is one of those responsible for keeping this case alive. He and three others, including the philologist and doctor Juan Martín Elexpuru. They also organized two congresses between 2012 and 2016 at the Europe Palace of Vitoria-Gasteiz, in which external experts such as Edward C. participated, which was awarded the Goya Awards. Harris, for example. Altuna III is the phenomenon of ball or Messi in football, Edward Harris is the great dominator of archaeology. He was the inventor of a method, and he's currently the director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Also invited to the congresses were the Galician epicenter Antonio Rodríguez Colmenero, Judge Jean-Baptiste Orpustan and other experts who assure that the finding of Iruña Veleia is false, of course, they did not attend, but their presentations on why these pieces are false were elaborated and there is a book in which the two congresses are collected. All this was explained to me by Patxi Alaña.

You joined the case.

Knowing all that, I felt a little guilty to having heard that a Basque heritage was false and to have left it aside without heeding. So I got really stuck on the subject. All the media, including the Basques, didn't get much of their stance in favor of authenticity, and people believed that the two archaeologists were criminals, Idoia Filloy and Eliseo Gil, and that they were fake. Scientists, both in favour of one side and in favour of the other, have written a great deal on this subject. There are 326 pages written in favor of falsehood and 2.104 in favor of authenticity. From the UPV/EHU come all the writings that say it is false and from international scientists that support authenticity. German Egyptologist Ulrike Fritz, American anthropologist Roslyn May Frank, Galician Antonio Rodríguez Colmenero, Belgian Koenraad Van den Driessche, among others, have written in favour of authenticity. Among the Basques are Enrique Kenner and Txillardegi, as well as Juan Martín Elexpuru and Emilio Illarregi. All of them are doctors and professors, high-level people, and it was 2,104 pages that drafted, point by point, the reports in favor of lying prepared by the UPV. What made me think was how these renowned professors and doctors, with their great name, put their prestige in favor of authenticity. I thought they were willing to make ridicule or lose reputation. If it's a false finding, why do you get into such a mess? Experts would not be involved in a lie. Therefore, I observed that they acted without partisan action and that, when they saw signs of authenticity, they risked their fame for the work done by these archaeologists. This convinced me, and then I decided to join this group. At the first meeting we gathered 23 people, and then the Iruña–Veleia Argitu platform emerged. Before, there were other groups, these and some independent, we went to the new platform.

How did you start the hunger strike?

We started the hunger strike five people: Jon Urruxulegi, 80, Josu Urrexola, 72, 61, Patxi Alaña, 58, and Unai Alaña, 33. After a week the two bosses abandoned her and the other three followed her. I'm on an incessant hunger strike, but the other two, which are thin, do it from time to time. Patxi Alaña was seven days in a row, and a week comes one day to fast with me. Her nephew Unai goes on a hunger strike three days a week, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I will turn to 49 days today.

What do you intend to achieve with this hunger strike?

We are in the 21st century, technologies and research have advanced enormously, and today there are ostraka and graphite laboratories, to analyze in detail those ceramics that have appeared there. And that's what we want. The aim is for the new Basque Parliament, which has just emerged, to move on to science, without taking into account what is going on in the trial. That is to say, acquitted or guilty, once the trial is completed, we ask, on the one hand, that all the pieces that until then depended on the judicial authority be taken and that consensus be taken 10-15 to the laboratories authorized to do so, to study them without traps. On the other hand, we want independent archaeologists who have so far had nothing to do with Iruña Veleaga to take the trouble and return to Iruña Veleia to take out new pieces. We want them to be analysed and made clear forever whether there is a huge treasure or whether it really is the biggest fraud that has been committed so far. We intend to continue the hunger strike until this is agreed in Parliament. We have talked to all parties, except with the PSE-EE, the pp and VOX, and for the time being we have good words, but that has to be brought on the table and accepted.

The platform alleges that there have been insufficient legal guarantees at the trial that is still held in Barcelona.

With technological advances and existing laboratories, it makes no sense to take the path of judgment without studying it in depth. In addition, when Eliseo Gil was told that the oysters were fake and they had done them themselves, his first reaction was to take the pieces and ask them to take them to the lab and examine them. A fake that I wouldn't say. But then the foral deputy was Lorena López de la Calle, from EA, and the commission, who signed the judgment of falsehood, refused, and also entered the examining magistrate, who also said no, that they did not examine them, and have had to spend twelve long years until the trial is held. So it's a tremendous injustice, because those people have not been killed, but less. These two archaeologists discovered in 1996 some remains in Iruña–Veleia, and they launched a project, José Luis Cadena contributed money, and that project was completed with fifteen workers and a great discovery was made. 20,000 pieces were taken out, of which 400 were drawn, with images and letters, most of them in Latin, but also in Basque. There were 80 words in Euskera, and that's what blew it all. Until then, philologists and observers such as Enrique Knorr, Pilar Cipres, Joaquin Gorrotxategi and Santos Yanguas affirmed that the words in Basque were true. Then came the first news that those were no more than unusual discoveries.

Was the theme of the Basque Country, then, for you, the starting point of all that?

When the Basque theme began, the machines began to move somewhere, and months later, Gorrotxategi changed the version, and then followed Ciprese and Yanguas. Only Enrique Knorr maintained this assertion. He maintained that he saw them authentic until his death. This was also said to us by the brother of Enrique Knor, the well-known company Kas, in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the relationship between the cycling team Bastidan Kas and that of Hostal Origen. At that meal I told from the microphone the story of the Knorr family, who created Kas, and I took the opportunity to say that, in addition to the industry, the Knorr family made a great contribution to the Basque world. There was Gorka Knorr and Enrique Knorr, and it was Enrique who participated in the discovery of Iruña Veleia. Roman Knorr got up and said that everything I had told him was true, and that, although his brother was dying, they had gone to press until the last day to change the version of truthfulness to that of falsehood. What is in Iruña Veleia for a great professor to make that request to a person who is about to die? That still gives us many more reasons to keep fighting.

The judicial case has yet to be resolved. Eliseo Gil has filed an appeal against the sanction.

At the trial, Elisha and Miguel Strogoff decided that they were not going to jail, but that they were guilty and that the pieces were false. They have appealed, but we do not have too much hope for the judicial route. It would be better if in the resource they went well and the pieces were authentic, but we will continue, despite everything, demanding that the issue be clarified through science. The damage caused is so great that, despite the acquittal, Elisha’s fame would remain on the ground. So, you have to do the real tests. The argument for condemning Elisha during the trial was very poor. In short, the pieces were transferred to the laboratory, which is the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain. The defence asked the one who had examined the IPCE how many times it had previously carried out such tests and data, and recognized that it was conducting them for the first time. They also asked him if they had to buy new materials to do so, and he said yes, that they had to buy a microscope to do so, and that in those cases he didn't have much experience. He said he studied 40 pieces and explained that 37 of them had between 10 and 15 microns of modern iron and that, in his view, they were made of modern metal. The defenders explained that microns are located anywhere we breathe, between 10 and 15 microns. It was clarified that for the remnants to be made of modern iron it would take at least 100 microns, but the judge gave the IPCE the right. Another report was also produced at the institute, but the expert who stated that he was not able to tell whether these oysters are true or false was not present at the trial. That is why they condemn him and condemn him to another sentence. Discovery has to be studied and written. The Deputy offered it to Luis Cerdán to carry out this work, which resulted in a total of EUR 12,000. The Member asked Gil to advance that money and to recover it in the agreement she had with the Member. He paid with his papers. Cerdan, apparently, had carried out a plagiarism and has been regarded as one of the members of that fraud. This is all like a movie.

Human chain, 19 September. In addition to the Gose Grave, other mobilizations will also be carried out to demand that Iruña Veleia be enlightened through science. Thus, on 19 September, a human chain will be carried out from the Bibat Museum in Vitoria-Gasteiz where the oysters found in Iruña–Velaia are stored to Parliament. The performance will start at 18:00 hours and then the concert of singer Jauregi Gartxot will be offered at the Euskalduna Palace.