Should the Åland Islands be Militarized? A Very Nordic Dispute in the Baltic Sea
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- čas přidán 2. 03. 2023
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This video explores the fascinating history and current geopolitical situation of the Aland Islands, a picturesque archipelago in the Baltic Sea that is officially part of Finland but has its own laws and culture. With no military presence or protection, the question of whether the islands should be militarized is a hotly debated topic. Discover the unique political compromises that have kept the islands demilitarized, as well as the strategic value they offer in a world of re-ignited tensions.
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Åland is pronounced as "O-land" in english
Thats what the Swedish and the people living in Åland call it too. Finnish people call it Ahvenanmaa.
Oh'land
Svenska is a silly language
I thought it was pronounced áh-land in English
Edit in British English. My dialect confirmed. Via brother and mother. IE top east England moved to South east England, with RP roots.
Oh, land! Said the Vikings when they first discovered Åland
Interesting video. The Åland Islands don't certainly get a whole lot of attention so it was an interesting to see a video related to them. Greetings from the Nordic countries!
Just visited Mariehamn in the Åland Islands on a Viking cruise - fascinating history & politics, beautiful scenery, a nice nautical museum and a great flag!
I wish people would stop constantly talking about the Aland islands, enough already.
@@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music On a video about the Åland islands you expect the comments to about what instead?
@@alanmoore2197 No, I mean on the bus or waiting in line at the grocery store.
4:30 is misleading, as Ålands were militarized during WWII. In event of war all obligations are gone and the islands can be used for military purposes. Operaatio Kilpapurjehdus (Operation Regetta) saw 23 Finnish ships race to the islands to put coastal defence ships as makeshift coastal artillery and land 5,000 troops to protect the islands from June 22nd, 1941.
Add in fact that mainland Finland has a large Swedish speaking population and multiple municipalities where the majority language is Swedish (though Finnish remains minority language), Åland isn't unique in language/ethnic considerations. Though definitely where Swedish is at its strongest in Finland.
And militarization question, IMO, isn't up to date with modern geopolitical situation. Sweden and Finland are almost allied, surely all the original signatories would agree to scrap the original treaty. Only one is Russia with a separate treaty from 1940, but considering they break all the treaties themselves, I see Finland having no moral obligations to continue that treaty.
Native American tribes know not to trust the USA as it has broken every treaty between the chiefs and government agents
5% of the population speaking swedish is not large, otherwise I agree.
@@RabbitShirak Swedish is also taught in school in Finland. how well people learn a language in school of course depends? but a large part of the Finnish majority also know Swedish (to various extents).
Holy God do Russians break treaties, as they are now in Ukraine.
It can be re-militarized easily in any contingency situation barring a Russian surprise attack from a state of deep peace, skipping the gray phase of conflict. Scrapping the demilitarization would just make deployment of troops easier.
'Fasta Åland' should be translated to 'Main Åland'. In Swedish, the word 'fastland' means 'mainland'.
@@angelprat6080 Åland does not translate to island. Island in swedish would be: ö.
Fasta Åland is usually used in English, so there’s no need for a translation of the name.
you gotta admit, "Fasta island" (as it sounded) does sound quite funny.
@@-NEH-*the island of öland would like to know your location. Please either accept or reject the offer.*
Isn't it crazy how well people and countries acting like civilized people can act with decency and nuance toward each other? There's a lesson to be learned here.
Åland currently has some privileges it could never have as a part of Sweden.
First, it is not in the EU, which means it can have tax free trade. The large cruise ships going from Sweden and Finland to Åland don't have to pay alcohol taxes. I once took a cruise from Sweden to Germany - we docked in Åland (which is quite a detour) in order to get these tax exemptions. This benefits Ålanders by providing jobs and tourists.
Second, the status of the Swedish language in Åland is exceptional, stronger than the position of the Swedish language in Sweden. If Åland was a part of Sweden, their Finn minority would have much stronger position in Åland than they have now.
Third, being demilitarized means no conscription. Finland has a conscription military, and takes this quite seriously, with a long mandatory service and repeated exercises over the years for all Finns. Not so for Ålanders.
Third, the border between Finland and Sweden is very fluid. Lots of Finns live in Sweden, and lots of Swedish-speakers live in parts of Finland outside Åland, and the borders are very open. While this is not directly an advantage for Åland, the opposite position would obviously be a problem.
And as Sweden, since 2014, has universal conscription. (govt. doesn't care about your parts or romantic preferences, only that you pass the physical and psychological tests, and your new temporary pronoun is Soldat, and you will be adressed with rank+service number+family surname.)
Just so. If Åland was a part of Sweden, this would apply to them. Right now they participate in neither Swedish nor Finn conscription.
Åland is a part of EU, just not the tax union.
It's a part of EU 🇪🇺and use the euro 💶
@@SonsOfLorgar While that's formally true, the psych evaluation allows anyone to avoid conscription. You can just act weird and say you're impulsive or asocial.
These videos are great, you are under rated keep this up you will keep growing! Covering less spoken about topics like these islands is the kind if stuff I can't get enough of. You will be the Latvian Artur Rehi 😉
Such good videos
thank you for watching :)
New follower from now on here in Madrid 🤗🤗
I go there on holiday every 2 years. A preserved little paradise!
As an Åland islander, this was a fairly good assessment of the current situation. Nothing has changed, and with us now being in Nato, prospects are that everything´s cool, and it will most likely stay that way.
Greetings from the mainland 🇫🇮❤️
Everything has changed, tensions are very high. Åland needs to choose is it a western Nato country or not. Being neutral is no longer an option. The old soviet agreement no longer means anything.
@@zoninable As far as I know we are already a western Nato country and Finland has decided that the old soviet agreement is in full force. Ergo: nothing has changed. Where do you get all your horseshit from?
@@AlfaGiuliaQV No you are just leeching. What do you mean nothing has changed or don't you have the news there? The old soviet agreement needs to end and it probably will be ended by Finland soon. People of Åland need to serve in the military and pay their share of the Nato alliance just like everyone else in Finland
It might be very much to your disadvantage to ignore the new Russian threat. To the extent that Åland is sovereign, you are vulnerable. Finland's NATO accession means Åland is likely protected by article 5. However, the point is to avoid ever having to come to the point of evoking article 5, particularly with a nuclear power like Russia. For that reason, Åland should be in talks with NATO about the risks that Russia might see the islands as a vulnerability that could exploit. If so, it's a good idea to prepare to defend Åland
Commander of swedish navy just other day guaranteed that their navy would help Finland to defend Åland is Russia tried to invade
And Finland would help defend Gotland too in case of some Russian monkeybussines.
If thats coming on russian mainland
Good video, mate. That wild mispronunciation of Kökar got a good chuckle out of me. Even with a little pause for effect. But I never really expect anyone to pronounce swedish right when you're trying to obey finnish pronunciation. :D
Åland people are mainly interested in those political things that belong to the parlament of the autonomous region. Security policy or defence do not belong to those, this is why there has not been a thorough discussion about security policy in Åland, and this is why people may not have understood how strong and how dramatic the change in the security environment actually is.
The original reason for demilitarisation of 1856 was to keep Stockholm and western sea routes to Northern Sweden safe from imperial Russia.
The demiltarisation has not managed to keep the islands out of ANY wars. The only reason, why USSR did not attack and occupy the islands in 1939 and 1941 was the fact that Finnish Navy managed to get there first. This operation was called Operation Kilpapurjehdus/Kappsegling (Sailing race).
The "new" demilitarisation on 1940 and 1947 has nothing to do with helping the islands stay out of conflicts. It was forced by USSR, to make sure Russians could easily take the islands in their control in a possible military conflict. Russia has actually had 2 airborne brigades stationed in Kaliningrad just for this purpose, one for Gotland, the other for Åland. Both of those have suffered losses in Ukraine though.
People of Åland islands strongly associate demilitarisation with Åland autonomy, therefore they strongly oppose any changes to the demilitarisation status. Demilitarisation has become a part of people's identity, and it is used extensively used in tourism marketing, as a regional perculiarity.
By the way, Aland islands is exclusively Swedish speaking, while mainland Finland has both Finnish and Swedish as official languages.
Well, i m saying it again when Sweden finally enters Nato, international Nato bases on Åland and Gotland fixes all problems.
0:29 has Åland spelled correctly, fix the title? ”Å” is pronounced a bit similar to “awe”, so pronunciation should sound a bit like Aweland. Not perfect but an okay english approximation of Åland :)
Great video! But you missed perhaps the weirdest thing, that the demilitarised status is monitored by Russia 🤨
This video does not reflect the real history. The official administrative language of Finland as a part of Sweden before 1808 was swedish. Swedish language continued to be the only official language of the grand dutchy of Finland until 1861 when finnish got a legal status as an alternative administrative language. Finland has had two official languages, swedish and finnish, ever since. The island Åland is not the only swedish speeking area of Finland. Only about 10% of those finnish citicens, that have swedish as there primary mother language live on Åland. We have a large swedish speaking minority here in Finland and everybody is obliged to learn some swedish in this country. The difference between Åland and the main land Finland is not related to language of culture but more on military history. I am myself one of those swedish speaking finns and I do have a greate respect to my friends on Åland.
"Everybody is obliged to learn some Swedish in this country" LOL says who, you? lmao. You don't seem to be very in touch with reality. You're probably one of those people who only speaks Swedish and then acts all entitled and starts to whine when their waiter at a cafe doesn't understand them.
The Finnish government
Whining.
Most Swedish speaking Finns in Finland are actually ethnic Finns who just changed their language from Finnish to Swedish in order to progress in the society ruled by the ethnic Swedes and Swedish speakers. While in Åland the majority of people are the decendants of ethnic Swedes. These facts have been shown in DNA studies.
And Finnish language was never treated as equal to Swedish language in the Kingdom of Sweden. Finnish was considerd the language of the Eastern peasents. Of the lowest of the lower class in the realm. Swedish was the proper language. Unless you knew Swedish, you got nowhere. Only at the end of the 19th century, because of the Fennomans, did things become to change for the Finnish language. And finally in the 20th century, the majority language started to be treated as an equal to Swedish. It was a long journey and somehow the Finnish language survived against the odds.
BTW I'm a mix of both peoples: Finns and Swedes. Don't ask me the mixture percentage, I don't know, and frankly I don't really care. I only wish my Swedish speaking paternal grandmother hadn't died during the war, so that my father and us children would have learned Swedish too.
@@CJFCarlsson Thanks
I think the Alands should be militarized with both finland and sweden having a shared military presence there, both should have a naval base just to keep the russians in check.
It’s Finnish territory. Finland takes care of it. Ruzzians needs to be kicked out. No question about it. We can practice with the Nato allies and Sweden.
The islands have nothing to do with Sweden. Sweden has no obligation or reason to have troops there
@@verttikoo2052 that's why a Nato base fixes the problem :)
Finland has a law prohibiting permament placement of foreign military on its soil.
They'll need to change that law to allow NATO bases, which they probably wont to keep out international bases of NATO.
@@Luihuable We can always change our laws. Ålands demilitarization will be gone.
If I lived on Åland islands, I would prefer a military presence. In the event of an attack, it must be a logistical nightmare for Finland's defense. Fortunately, Sweden and Finland have a close military cooperation.
The little circle over the "A" in Åland means its pronounced as an "O", as in, "Ohland Islands".
Nic jb
Finland is now a NATO member SO the Aland Islands are now protected by Article 5. Good news.
But there is a pre-NATO Treaty demilitarising the Åland Islands, the Convention of 1921. Finland is not entitled under that treaty to militarise the islands (nor is Russia, the successor to the treaty obligations).
Good luck with that one....🤣
@@EdMcF1 So you do know that Putin's Nazi Russia does not care about rules or agreements?
As a Native Finn, i believe that we should re-militarize Ahvenanmaa immediately.
@@EdMcF1 That is true, but the Åland Islands are still protected under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty since they are a part of Finland’s sovereign territory.
Adding to the argument that Åland are apart of the Finnish archipelago, you should quickly mention that they're separated by "Södra Kvarken", which means "The Southern Narrow Strait". "Norra Kvarken" or "The Northern Narrow Strait", also known as just "Kvarken" or the Finnish: "Merenkurkku", "Throat Of The Sea" ("The Narrow Strait"), is situated between Vasa and Sweden. Also Åland is pronounced O-land, O as in "roar" or the British "alright". Also "Fasta Åland" means "Fixed Åland". Otherwise amazing video!
Also, most of the Finnish Archipelago is inhabited by Swedish speakers until you enter the gulf of Finland proper. I've sailed there, the flags are almost all the yellow cross on red of Swedish-speaking Finlanders. Before Russia took Finland in 1809, all of this was considered Swedish counties.
Drawing a line between Swedish Finland and Finn Finland before 1809 is har, tough, as all of this were home provinces of Sweden, just with part of the population speaking a different language. In the Baltic, German, and Sami provinces of Sweden yet other languages were spoken. Nationalism as it exists today hadn't reached these parts yet.
Maybe we Swedes should be happy we lost Finland in 1809 - if Finland had remained a part of Sweden, Finn nationalism would have emerged sooner or later and likely been quite hostile to Sweden.
As the Germans and the French have the joint brigade and since the Finns and Swedes are both nato. It would be the perfect place for a joint regiment to be set up
Eyy, Åland mentioned. This is a once-in-a-millennium event lol.
forgot to mention that russian oligarchs have been building "summer homes" there with your usual summer home heavy helicopter landing pad and barracks
Don't American Indians living in tribal lands have political autonomy? If "yes", then the Alands are not the world's only example of a devolved federal. Also, what about the new nation of Nunavuk, in Canada's Arctic northeast?
By treaty, both Åland and Svalbard are demilitarized, meaning that in peacetime no military installations are allowed on those archipelagoes. But if attacked, of course Finland and Norway are in their right to defend Åland and Svalbard and to receive military assistance from other NATO members.
This video also sidesteps that a significant minority on the coastal areas of sw Finland are Swedish ethnically, and do use Swedish as a mother tongue, but speak Finnish and probably English.
We are not ethnic swedes ffs. Our culture aint the same and I have no ties to Sweden. You assume that because we have a mixed Swe and Fin culture and speak a language that is similar to Swedens Swe probally influenced by being part of Sweden for 100's of years. My mother tongue is FinSwe and 34% is Karelian blood with 28% Helsinki area and the rest around Finland, like not even 1% goes to the Swedish side.
Like there was a time when Swe speaking changed to Fin speaking there was also a time when Fin speaking changed to Swe. I am not saying there is 0% ties between FinSwe people to Sweden, I am saying the % is more towards Finland than Sweden so saying we are ethnic fcking Swedes is an insult.
and Åland is only a tiny part of the FinSwe speakers, plus that their Swe is heavily influenced by Swedish summer guests.
To be honest.. some finnish to be heard there is bit bad.. then again my swedish aint too good.. but we understand each other well enough 🥰
I was under the impression that Swedish decent is the majority not minority.
@@znail4675 Like there was scandinavians on Åland before Sweden existed.
I would think that by now with the peaceful nature of Sweden and Finland that a joint militarization of the islands with both nations building it up would be ideal
Love Åland as a Swede! I am a bit worried tho both Finns and Swedes are not happy with the idea of international Nato bases in our countries. I for one would love Nato bases on Åland and Gotland for the baltic sea security. It would even strengthen the economy of these two remote regions. And still keep conscription out of Åland :)
So does that mean if Finland is now a NATO member Aland is not part of the alliance? I am asking because it is part of Finland.
It is part of NATO. It is just not militarised. Meaning invading it would mean war with NATO.
As a part of Finland, the Åland Islands are a part of NATO. But Finland’s membership in NATO will not affect the internationally recognised status of the Åland Islands as a neutral and demilitarised zone. The Åland Islands are part of Finland’s sovereign territory and defending Åland and its neutrality was the responsibility of Finland before NATO membership, and will remain so. An attack on Åland is an attack on Finland’s sovereign territory and will trigger Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
Åland is an autonomous, demilitarised and neutralised province of the Republic of Finland. It is not its own sovereign nation.
5:50 On the contrary. Almost every state in the US has Indian Reservations where local tribal governments control much of daily life. One consequence of this is the proliferation of casinos on tribal land within states where they are otherwise illegal.
Much like the tax free shopping permitted on ships between Åland and the EU - including Sweden. :)
I am convinced that the islanders preference for remaining with Finland is largely due to their autonomous status.
Autonomy usually grants large extra incomes to the autonomous area and or tax exemptions.
If - THEORETICALLY - their autonomy were taken from them, leaving only the right to use Swedish as a main language, they would probably shift toward a Swedish annexation.
Another point that always surprises me is how Finland has managed to overcome hostility towards Sweden. Sweden and Finland have a checkered past with Swedes actively trying to suppress Finnish culture and language. And yet they appear now to be the best of friends. I am curious to know whether that is the real situaltion or whether all is not well in paradise.
Sweden has had policy of forced assimilation of Finns, but we live in a dangerous world and its better to have friends than not. As long as we have Russia as our neighbor, this matter will not be brought up by Finnish politicians. Finns living in Sweden matter little to us anyway since they aren't contributing to our country anymore. If they feel too oppressed, they are welcome back in Finland. Also, bringing this up means they would have to deal with forced assimilation of Sami by Finland in the past.
All is well in paradise lol, I think it boils down to the fact that finnish as a national identity didn’t exist when Finland was a part of Sweden. (Also finland was an integral part of Sweden for 600 years so the occupier-occupied dynamic was much weakened by the time finland was lost) The finnish national identity only emerged during the latter half of the 1800s when finland was a part of the Russian empire and was aggressively Russified.
I think it's a case of being pragmatic. Sweden is now seen as a nation with similar values and goals. Even the status of Finnish-speakers who live in Sweden has been improving recently (people used to be ashamed of speaking FInnish in Sweden). The nations are now more evenly wealthy than ever. People understand how different the world was just 200 years ago.
There's always some wrangling between Swedish-speaking Finns and the majority, but it's not any more serious than what's between the Finns that live in different areas or cities of the country. The language topic is always open and the Swedish party gets into every government to maintain the status of the Swedish language in Finland (e.g. it's still mandatory for every Finnish person to study Swedish at school for multiple years). I grew in a small town where the language groups were about even in size. We went to different schools so we only saw the Swedish-speaking kids at hobbies. Most of them spoke good Finnish so we never spoke Swedish to them.
Not to forget that many in the Fennoman movement were Swedish speakers.
I would like to visit someday. Thankfully Finland is now in NATO.
Hey, thanks for watching :)
Well, there is one military building in Åland...russian consulate.
Here's an Å that you can copy and paste into the title of the video. It's not too late. You can do it! There you go!
fine
@@GeoPerspective I see it's still written the wrong way. Here the Å is again, so you can copy and paste into the video title. I have faith in your ability to do it!
No need to militarize Åland really. You control Gotland and you control the Baltic Sea. Russia wouldn’t be able to take control of the Åland until they controlled the southern part of Finland and that wouldn’t be possible today. Another way would be to take control over Gotland and then they wouldn’t need Åland
Militarisation of Ålan can only come when the local population thinks its necessary.
Personally I think it’s something that should be done as the hostile occupier wouldn’t care …
Also, in case of war, Åland would be militarised very quickly with Sweden assisting from the west.
I wonder why the Swedes and Finns have not considered a rail tunnel and bridges to connect themselves by a fixed link through the Alends?
I think Russia as a signatory of the original agreement of demilitarisation has a strong case in international law to maintain this status, Finland was not itself a signatory to this aspect of the Crimean War. .
That would make this tunnel the worlds longest tunnel.. there is not enough economic incentive to build it
Doesn't make sense economically. Also, it would be an insane engineering task (world's longest tunnel).
We love each other quite a lot - just not that much, as the other commentators have pointed out.
It has been considered. Just really expensive.
The train ride would be too short to properly get drunk, and having a party on a train has its limits. Therefore trains will never replace the ships.
Unfortunately yes you need some defense there, putin is insane
My family is from the Islands and my Family Name is Ålander
If Russia were to invade the Âlands, they would have invalidated the treaty that renders them de-militarised, to which they are a signatory. This would give Finland the basis for placing forces on the archipelago and asking for help under Article 5. The problem would be pre-emptive militarisation of the islands, presumably a breach of the 1921 Convention.
Finland was not in NATO when the video was made.
Since when has muscovy respected any treaties? We should just announce the demilitarisation treaty null and void, and place Finnish, and even Swedish troops, on the islands. That's really the only way to protect the islands from the dishonest and murderous muscovites. Right now there is a real real risk, that muscovy will do something horrible in Åland. They already have their permanent spy station there.
"If Russia were to invade the Âlands, they would have invalidated the treaty that renders them de-militarised ..." 🤣
For Russians any treaty is just a piece of paper, have always been. If anyone knows that by experience, it is the Finns.
Its "ooland" not aland
Nato has finally happened!
:0)
Great video!
thanks for watching :)
🇨🇦 stands with 🇸🇪 🇫🇮
as a finn, I say nah. It was agreed that åland stays demilitarised, so that's how it stays. No need to create unnecessary friction between us and swedes. At least without an extensive discourse and an agreement with Sweden.
What Russian leadership thinks is no concern of mine given how they respect their neighbours.
It is really strange to have this 150 km wide demilitarized remnant between two EU/NATO members in an area that is critical for the national defence of both countries. Unfortunately demilitarization is likely to remain. Many leftist politicians in particular do not want to "violate international treaties", although it is not clear that they even apply. And Russian sensibilities do not matter any longer. Also, people of Åland do not want to take responsibility for their own defence but sanctimoniously also consider demilitarization as part of their identity (what makes them "better"). Even though the islands would be remilitarized if there is any threat. The problems are the "little green men" scenario or a surprise attack by Russia. I cannot believe that this is not a hole in Finland's and maybe even more so Sweden's defences. Åland is far away from Helsinki or Turku, but just a few tens of kilometers from Stockholm, capital of Sweden. I cannot imagine that their military planners would not want it remilitarized as well.
thanks for watching and insightful comments, during my research on Kaliningrad I also learned a lot about Soviet and Nazi similarities. Its quite fascinating.
Yes, Sweden and Finland should militarise it as part of a deal with the islands based on the very real threat Russia poses
Finland and Sweden would defend the potato chips from Åland until the end.
This video is super out of touch. I will elaborate if you (the uploader) are interested.
Åland was occupied by Finnish forces during WW2. Positively surprised to hear her flag was respected regardless.
I think we should militarize Åland isles, it would be nai've attitude not to do so, russians would take an advantage the situation if the war would escalate worldwide.
Putin has a summer house on Åland.
There are several errors.. or.. well more flaws in the video.
Åland was a integral part of Sweden directly when Sweden was created. So was quite a bit of current day Finland. Sweden was Created by joining Svea kingdom with Göta kingdom . Svea kingdom contain Åland, and a bit of the Finish cost. This also conected a larger bit of Finland and Norrland (that is the top part that currently joins Finland and Sweden). Parts of Estonia was also pretty much core of Svealand at this time. Stockholm was pretty much in the center of the then kingdom. Parts of current day Finland (including Åland) was never core finish and are still not to this day.
Later Sweden become part of Kalmar union. Here is where it get somewhat complicated. Sweden Split of Kalmar union, but Norway and Skåne stayed (well.. more or less voluntary, depending on who you asked).
The then Swedish empire reocupied all territories earier being Swedish settlements, and most areas around it. Prior to this the borders between nation was somewhat fuzzy, specially in the north. But from this point forward the border was a specific line. This include all of current day Finland, S:t petersburg, Most of the Baltic states parts of current day Germany and Poland and part of Kingdom of Norway. At this point there still never existed a Finish country. There was a finish culture that at this period of time was fully encapsulated by Sweden but that was also true for Estonian and Latvian.
After a war with Russia Sweden lossed all of the baltic states as well as S:t petersburg and the border between Sweden and and Russia, closely approximated: Sweden during that period just recently took over Kingdom of Skåne from occupation of Denmark, and also a bit of Norway. Swedish border was pretty much then the same as Sweden+Finland today
After the peace of 1809 with the war between Russian and Sweden. Grand duchy of Finland was created. Now here is where it becomes a bit more complicated.
Finland is Swedish and means the land of the fins. In finish the word are totally different. Here is the thing. In the empire of Sweden, people didn´t talk Swedish. They talked what ever they locally did. Finland didn´t select to be a part of Russia, they didn´t fight to be a part of Russia, They was a bounty that Russia won in the war. This contain all of the lands of the fins, but also all Swedish colonies on the east side of the Baltic. Norrland that was practically a colony colonized centuries after Svea Kingdom and land of Fins was joined, was split in half. Right down the middle.
Many Swedish people in Finland retained there Swedish identity up to this day as well as learning Swedish was obligatory in Swedish school until just a few decades ago.
There are still other majority Swedish part of Finland to this day, but they are getting fewer and fewer. So its not just Åland.
The diffrance is that Åland is really quite isolated. There is no bridge to the mainland and for the ferry service is quicker to get to Sweden than Finland.
This is very different to the Swedish part of Mainland Finland where the border between Swedish and Finish culture is very fuzzy and every so slightly go in the direction of becoming more finish for every year. Ethinicaly and cultural Sweden and Finland is pretty much identical. The diffrance between current day Svealand (previus Svea kingdom) and other part of Sweden is no smaller than Sweden and Finland.
But in Åland the culture is pretty much identical to that close to stockholm and much more similar than say current day Skåne or Norrland that is actually quite different from Stockholm
The demilitarization should end, but the locals could handle the defence at least in some capacity until reinforcements arrive. Ending demilitarization also would quicken the response of the Finnish Defence Force as there would not be no need for political decision making in uncertain circumstances. We saw a situation where political system was out for the count in Ukraine 2014 and Russia snuck in to Crimea. We all like to think that this would not happen in Finland, but who is to say what happens in the next 50 years or longer.
In a scenario where there is political turmoil in Finland and political decision making is temporarily incapacitated for whatever reason. How helpless is Åland when there is no local defense and FDF cannot get permission to enter and suddenly foreign troops or "little green men" start appearing on the streets? It would not matter that there is NATO, because nobody would trigger article 5. Even Sweden would not be able to help since their troops would not be allowed to enter without breaking international agreements and Sweden is honorable. Russia broke agreements with Crimea when it annexed it and there was only minor consequences so it is not inconceivable that they have plans for Åland should the right political circumstances ever occurr in Finland.
The Government of Åland recognises that the defence of the islands is at the discretion of the Government of Finland and the Finnish Defence Forces. The Air Force is already allowed to fly over the islands at any time, and the Navy has a base in Turku. So there is little gain in ending the demilitarisation of Åland.
If Finland would end up in such political turmoil that there wouldn’t be a functioning government, it wouldn’t matter if Åland had been militarised or not. National defence isn’t an Åland internal affair, so it wouldn’t be under the jurisdiction of the Åland Government anyway.
@@robinviden9148 I do not have such a surrender mentality. Just because one part temporarily fails, it is not forever and we shouldn't just plan to surrender but to survive those times. You are free to have your opinion, but we just disagree on that.
Thumbnail : "Free Real Estate"
*Invade it and see just how "free" it is.*
Oh god you butchered the Å pronounciation massively throughout the video 😆
i hope the producers of this very articulate video return to update this now that Finland (but not yet Sweden, sadly!!!) is now a NATO member..... But perhaps they are waiting for Turkey and Hungary to get off their frickin' high horses and accept Sweden into NATO.....
Åland should be militarised by the international treaty only meaning that the army can move in at will if Russia starts to mass landing vessels in the Baltic sea but leave peace time status quo as it is.
Btw its worth noting that the treaty permits the presence of Finnish coast guard vessels, two Finnish navy ships and one Swedish/NATO ship plus FiAF can fly around as they please.
This might be enough to put a hiccup in a Russian amphibious+airborne operation.
Actually the finnish law and treaties dictate that in wartime, Finland has the responsibility to defend Åland. So peacetime = demilitarized, wartime = militarized. FDF has had plans for defending Åland for decades.
That is already the case.
@@Vapourized90
Yes but there's the grey phase in between.
Its not actually war before the invasion fleet opens fire or crosses the border.
@@Suojeluninja and that's why FDF has rights to react to that.
@@Suojeluninja There is no grey zone. If the enemy starts making preparations, so does the FDF, and they will be in place here long before the Russians.
"...it's russians[(some hauses)], finn's and swedish island -friendshippeople's island; you must not be drunk:" 0.0% alcoholfreebear just after lemonades on the floorside in shops all over the world
Once Sweden becomes a Nato member, then it could have unified troops that belong to neither yet both nations.
Ahvenanmaa on suomen älä puhu kun et tiedä
The Åland Islands are part of Finland’s sovereign territory and the defence of them is the responsibility of Finland. There is already strong military cooperation with Sweden, and that doesn’t change whether or not both countries are NATO members. Neither does Åland’s status as an internationally recognised demilitarised and neutralised zone change with both countries in NATO. Åland’s demilitarisation and neutralisation is based on international treaties. Although an important factor in understanding the background for Åland’s special status, the Åland Islands dispute has now been settled for over a century.
I'll suggest it should be militarized, filtration posts every two kilometers, bunkers at every building, minefields all over across the fields and shore. And 100% population should be drafted to military service. Bear from the east is already heading toward swedish and finnish stockpile of surströming. And nukes, I'm sure mighty usa is willing to share they nuclear capability with noble norse warriors.
It seems with their autonomy if given the choice they would probably want to be independent
You have no clue what you are talking about. Åland is a rocky island on the baltic that has almost no natural resources other than fish so they could not have a functional economy and they did have a choise to join sweden after ww2 but since sweden decided to stay neutral and did not help defend finland when russia attacked and finland protected åland so the decided to stay a part of finland as a autonomys region with their own language and citizenship. Finland allowed åland to decide for themselfs and they decide to stay as a part of finland with autonomy. Not every autonomys region wants to be independed especially region that accually have been given actual autonomy like åland. Finland has always had good relations with their swedish speaking populus and hasnt oppressed them so why would they want independence?
"Vast expanse of the baltic sea". Riiight.
The demilitarization was stupid in the first place and should be scrapped. By now, Sweden should know Finland is not going to use it to invade Stockholm 😃 after all it was a issue between Sweden & Finland, russia wasn't even part of the treaty
Let's put as much anti air and anti shipping weaponry we can fit on it and blockade anything Russian from entering the Baltic sea, let's just provoke Putin to have a fatal heart attack from anger 😂
Your personal Biases have nothing to do with the truth !
Given how Finland is now in NATO, and no longer neutral they will very likely become militarized.
People there don't want to. Most likely because it means they also need to do military service.
@@teropiispala2576 Some serve voluntarily though. Still, given the unreliable state of our eastern neighbor Russia it would be in everybodies interest to scrap the outdated demilitarization agreement and at least have a token force there. Our only Swedish speaking brigade in Dragsvik, where Finland trains its own marines, the US Marines have sent two units for training with our troops. One recently left, very satisfied with the co-operation and the chance to train in a different environment they were used to, left and the other just arrived. I guess one of the scenarions they are training is the rapid deployment of forces on Åland island and taking control of the islands between Estonia and Finland, now in Russian hands as they annexed them after the war.
@@trident6547 Åland would need air defence equipment and naval missile units and enough forces to efectively use them. Russia propably try to install their own units in order to control the area if conflict rise.
Finland and Sweden also need to extend national waters to completely block Russian access from Gulf of Botnia. It is possible according to international law.
Russia is for sure building a fortress into Suursaari, which they took during the last war. I’m not aware of any disputed islands.
Not likely. Åland’s demilitarisation isn’t dependent on Finnish neutrality.
The islands needs to be protected because they have strategic value for Russia. If Russia was to take them by surprise it would be difficult to dislodge them and the subsequent fight would cause great harm to the local population. If putting a Finnish garrison is controversial then they should put a garrison from another NATO member that has no interest or whatsoever in the Baltic Sea and Nord Sea. I.e Spanish or Italian.
Russia can't send a very large force if they want to retain the element of surprise and that force would find itself surrounded by hostile navies and enemy air superiority.
Not THAT hard to dislodge them
@@Suojeluninja Russia takeover of these islands are unrealistic, especially by surprise. The War between NATO and Russia will be on Russian soil. Finland itself will be "rocket-shield" for rest of Europe
@@Suojeluninja but in the meantime Finland, as well as the Baltic states, would be cut of from sea resupply. Don’t forget that once Russia digs in the also bring anti aircraft system and land base anti ship missiles, preventing any allies movement in a 100+ miles radius. So not so easy to dislodge. Is much easier to defend them in the first place.
That would have the inverse effect. Finland already is uneasy with NATO as we have always been, so I doubt some new guys rolling up and just putting a garrison on the famously and historically demilitarized islands would be to say the least controversial. In short, if ever someone will put a garrison there, it will be Finland.
Russia has a very lmited fleet in the baltics. They can send a bunch of barges and some u-boats perhaps, but that´s about it.
Ahvenanmaa on suomen
Yes?
The idea that European nations wouldn't automatically defend Finland from territorial aggression from Russia is not just wrong but hilariously wrong. They're EU members!
You're forgetting that EU in its essence is only a trade alliance.
It is difficult to listen to when you gravely miss-pronounce the name of the archipelago every single time... Sounds kind of like you didn't do your homework LOL :P
no terrorussia and its allies - no problems for neighbors and the whole world!
the islands are a huge moneypit and should be sold to highest bidder
🇸🇪❤🇦🇽
Åland should be militarized. They are very tactically important areas, and many finns think its kind of un-equal that ålanders dont need to participate in the armed forces conscription
They still do civil service
@@picklechin2716
No they don’t. In THEORY there is civil service BUT in practice there is none. So they are total free riders which irritates a lot of people. And even more if everybody in Finland would know it.
Demilitarisation is nonsense. It was made after Crimean War to protect Sweden against Russia but now only benefiter is… Ruzzia.
@@v.i.4268 Demilitarisation was part of the agreement made by the League of Nations
The people of that region called the people of the east the Rus,they were great traders they should go back to being the friendly people of the past. ❤
"A Very Nordic Dispute" - what a dumb headline...
You do realise the prehistory of Scandinavia...
Areas reaching even all the way to Göteborg almost, were inhabited by Proto-Finnic people, so even Åland was Finnish populated for a very long time if it even had people, until the Swedes made their crusades onto the islands and onto the western Finnish shores, so them trying to annex land with Swedish speaking people isn't a fair deal, as Sweden itself has hundreds of thousands of Finnish speaking people too, still especially in the North, from where Sweden gets its huge amounts of raw metal resources from.
In conclusion, it's way better just for our 2 countries to respect both Finnish and Swedish cultures, and set the state borders on natural lines (like the Tornio river and ofcourse these Åland islands). 👍
Swedes and Finnic people have always lived mixed
Now that is just a bunch of lies.
@@AlfaGiuliaQV which parts?
@@heh9392 Almost all of it.
@@AlfaGiuliaQV Cope
No, but they should be returned to Sweden
Why?
@@robinviden9148 because they used to be Swedish
So did the entirety of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and parts of Russia, Poland, Germany and Norway. I can’t see why that would be an argument. In fact it’s the exact same argument that is used by Putin to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
@@tuff9486 Logic doesn't make any sense. They don't want to be part of Sweden. They don't even consider themselves Swedes...
Lool, “ conservative- white government of Finland?”.
Omg Californication is spreading…
Well, now we Ålanders are in Nato.
Give the Alands to Sweden, then militarize them.
Why the hell would we do that? The ålanders themselves don't want to be part of Sweden. They don't even see themselves as Swedes, but as a separate people (even separate to the Finland-Swedes)
They should be militarized by arming the locals.
As a Finn the Swedes can just have these Islands. We don't really care. However, I think the Ålanders think themselves not as Swedes, but a separate people. They want autonomy, but the responsibilities that come with full independence is too much. The situation today is different though. These islands were supposed to be demilitarized as per agreements with the Soviet Union, but Russia wipes its ass with papers today as they've just invaded Ukraine, so who cares, really? As a Finn I'd really love it, if USA loaned us some nukes. We already have rockets capable of reaching Petersburg from the border.
The population is not big enuff to be independent without any fuzz nowadays. it lives almost 30k people in Åland in comparison that's 10% of Iceland's population. Keeping up healthcare and infrastructure levels they are used to means they need to tax themselves to hell to maintain it.
@@benktlofgren4710 There are microstates, but they are almost always dependencies of larger states.
@@whitegoose2017 Yes but you can not compare Åland to Luxenburg either 600k+ pop. And if we compare San Marino that has ruffly the same pop as Åland but on an area small as 61,2 km² Åland area is 13 324,29 km² and many islands you do the math, it is no chance in hell it gonna work.
Potato Island. Nonsense place.
It should have it's autonomy ripped away and reintegrated and militarized
This has to be the worst take ever.
@@picklechin2716 how so?
Ålanders are ungrateful snobish racist pricks towards us finns.
They take money from the national budget while being the richest area in finland while not paying back any taxes.
The avoid everything obligations and only take benefits.
@@picklechin2716 why
@@picklechin2716 It's the best take, you racist apartheid supporter.
I think Åland has the best position being part of Finland. Credible military for starters to protect them, second the autonomy is vast. Finland respects minorities as seen with the Swedish speaking minority on the Finnish mainland. And if Åland would be part of Sweden then they would likely be populated with wealthy Stockholmers and their summertime villas..
First :D
Wohooo
ten ways to pronounce Åland Islands....
The Island Islands apparently
As a swedish man i do not care if we talking about Åland,Israel,russias japanese islands or other places in the world. In my mind ewerything is about what people was the first to sattle down in a place. That people and nobody else have the right to rule there. Therefore i realy do not care if the people in Åland wanted to belong to us ewen if they are more swedish in blod propably, simply because finns was the first people there. But of course i am honored that they wanted to join us. In some ways i am a swedish patriot but justice always comes first. Because of that i should ewen accept if the Sami people in northern Sweden wanted to be independent. I should not be happy because we should lost a big part of Sweden. They are a small people but the area they populated in the north is a big part of my nation. But i should accept it in the name of justice because to be honest we stole their land in the past and as far as i know we have not found any remains from the vikings there, at least not of the kind that proves that we lived permanent up there. Same goes for the Sami parts of Norway,Finland and russian samiland so actually the sami people are more northmen then us vikings.
👍👍
Finns were the first Ålanders?
@@robinviden9148 no but yes finns were there before swedes who came there somewhere around 900-1000 AD
As a Finn I would prefer Finnish miltary on Åland provided Åland's privileges (e.g. no conscription!) and autonomy are uphold. Local impact should be minimised - only Swedish speaking troops, minimal land for a few hundred soldiers. Finnish Navy allowed to its own archipelago would be the most important benefit.
I hope NATO will establish a new military base there, as Finland now is a NATO member. I m finnish citizen. I welcome more military in Finland. I was so tired being afraid
Why? Finland has one of the biggest wartime military in Europe. Almost a million soldiers.
What if the pesky Fins massively expand the police force armed with military grade weaponry in the islands?
Yes it should. A multi national NATO base would be perfect.
Yes. It's ours and it would look better with some anti-ship missile batteries. Also its a blatant inequality since Ålanders are freed from conscriptions.
"immense strategic value"!? Really!? NOT AT ALL!
It has great value in the conflict between Finland and Sweden, for any hostility towards Russia those islands have absolutely no importance!
Russia has no problem finland joing nato.
so they claim
lol
So so funny all Yatubers forgot a the fact that EU has its own version of NATO article 5, NATO was just a perfect way to show Putin about life choices.
Finland better militarize the crap out of them quick or lose them to Russia
If that was to happen, it would mean nuclear war.