Finland will finally remove swastikas from the flag of its air force after ‘awkward situations’
Finland’s air force is phasing out the use of swastikas on some of its flags, a decision largely driven by the awkwardness it creates with its Western allies.
While the swastika is an ancient symbol, its modern association is overwhelmingly with Nazi tyranny and hate groups. However, the Finnish air force began using it many years before the birth of Nazi Germany, making its historical context more nuanced.
Changes have been underway for years; a swastika logo was quietly pulled from the Air Force Command’s unit emblem some time ago. Yet, their continued presence on certain Finnish air force flags has raised eyebrows among NATO allies, tourists, and other foreigners who spot them at military events.
“We could have continued with this flag, but sometimes awkward situations can arise with foreign visitors. It may be wise to live with the times, Col. Tomi Böhm, the new head of Karelia Air Wing air defense force, was quoted as saying in a report Thursday by the public broadcaster YLE.
The Defense Forces, in an email to The Associated Press on Friday, said a plan to renew the air force unit flags was launched in 2023, the year Finland joined NATO, but said it was not linked to joining the alliance. The aim, it said, was “to update the symbolism and emblems of the flags to better reflect the current identity of the Air Force.”
It referred to an article in daily Helsingin Sanomat on Friday, which said the reason for the removal was a perception that the swastika has been an “embarrassing symbol in international contexts.”
Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, joined NATO in April 2023 over concerns related to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Teivo Teivanen, a professor of world politics at the University of Helsinki, said the flags in question were introduced in the 1950s and today are flown by four Air Force units.
The Air Force and the Finnish public generally had for years insisted the swastikas used in Finland’s air force “have nothing to do with the Nazi swastika,” said Teivanen, who this month had a book published whose Finnish title translates as “History of the Swastika.”
But now, following Finland’s integration with NATO, policymakers have decided “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,” he said.
Teivanen said that in 2021, German air force units bowed out of a final ceremony following exercises at a military base in Finland’s Lapland region after learning that the Finnish swastikas would be on display.
Finland’s air force adopted the swastika emblem in 1918 soon after country gained its independence after more than a century of Imperial Russia rule.
Count Eric von Rosen of neighboring Sweden donated Finland’s first military plane in 1918, which bore his personal symbol, the swastika.
The Finnish air force soon after adopted a blue swastika on a white background as the national insignia on all its planes from 1918 to 1945. After the war, the imagery remained for decades on some Air Force unit flags and decorations as well as on the insignia of the Air Force Academy.
