NATO member Finland will phase out the swastika from its remaining military flags, national media reported.
Why It Matters
The swastika is closely associated with Nazi Germany, although its history far predates the fascism regime of Adolf Hitler. Nowadays, rather than a motif of peace or well-being, it is closely linked for most Westerners to antisemitism and Nazism. Displays of Nazi symbols, including the swastika, are banned in many European countries.
Finland’s air force command had used the swastika since the early 20th Century, but dropped the symbol in 2017.
What To Know
Finland’s air force will remove the remaining swastikas from any unit flags, Colonel Tomi Böhm, the commander of the country’s Karelia Air Wing, told Finnish broadcaster YLE.
Newsweek has reached out to the Finnish Defense Forces for comment via email.
Böhm said the military had run into “awkward situations” with foreign visitors, including U.S. personnel, but there was “no political pressure to do this.” The commander said he could not confirm when the flags would no longer feature any swastika designs, according to the report.
The Finnish Defense Forces told The Associated Press on Friday that plans to change up the air force flags were launched in 2023.
Finland joined the NATO alliance in 2023, and was followed by its neighbor, Sweden, last year.
The decision to switch the designs of the flags was not connected to Helsinki’s NATO accession, the military said.
The country wanted to “update the symbolism and emblems of the flags to better reflect the current identity of the air force,” the defense forces said.
Swastikas were dropped from Finnish aircraft in the wake of World War II, but did still appear on some unit flags, other emblems and uniforms, a Finnish air force spokesperson told the BBC in 2020.
The country’s air force command had been using the emblem of a golden eagle and a circle of wings since early 2017, the air force said at the time.
“As unit emblems are worn on uniform, it was considered impractical and unnecessary to continue using the old unit emblem, which had caused misunderstandings from time to time,” the spokesperson told the British broadcaster.
What People Are Saying
Colonel Tomi Böhm, the commander of Finland’s Karelia Air Wing, told domestic media: “The world has changed, and we live according to the times.”
“There’s now a need to get more integrated with the forces of countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and France—countries where the swastika is clearly a negative symbol,” Teivo Teivainen, a professor of world politics at the University of Helsinki, told the AP.
What Happens Next
It is not clear when exactly the swastika will be entirely removed from the Finnish military flags.
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