Finnish Defense Minister Threatens Demilitarized Archipelago With Civil Service

The inhabitants of the autonomous and Swedish-speaking Finnish province of Åland, which has been demilitarized for over 160 years, feel their exemption from conscription to be under threat after Finland's Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö voiced plans to involve the islanders in civil service.

According to the Finnish constitution, all Finnish citizens are obliged to engage in the defense of the country. The inhabitants of Åland, however, have been historically relieved from recruitment and instead been given the positions as ship pilots, operate lighthouses or engage in civil jobs. In reality, though, the law is not applied because there is no replacement service. Now the Defense Ministry wants to send the islanders to civil service alongside their fellow Finns who don't do military service, as Jussi Niinistö called Åland's dated self-government law a "dead letter" and called to revise it.

"Certainly, the people of Åland are Finns like the rest of us. We should have the same rights and obligations. But so far it has not been like this," Jussi Niinistö told the Finnish daily Hufvudstadsbladet.

On Åland, as expected, this initiative is anything but welcome. Finnish MP Mats Löfström from Åland called it a "political stance."

"Åland's demilitarization is older than Finland's independence and is guaranteed by three different international agreements. For this reason, Åland is not to be included in the conscription system," Mats Löfström told Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

Eighteen-year-old Jakob Mattsson encapsulated the islanders' skepticism toward Niinistö's proposal.

"We are not forced to do it and I'm not interested in doing it either," Jakob Mattsson told Yle.

Furthermore, it appears that Niinistö's designs are more on the side of private initiative rather than a coordinated action.

"This thought sounds completely alien and contradicts the generally accepted principles," Defense Committee deputy chairman Mika Kari told Vasabladet, suggesting that Niinistö has been "toying with Åland's position" for some time now.

The Åland Islands are an autonomous and demilitarized region of Finland, situated halfway to Sweden at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. The archipelago of roughly 30,000 is Finland's only region to have Swedish as the only official language, which constitutes yet another obstacle to the islanders' military service, as Finnish is the main language used in Finland's Armed Forces.

​Åland enjoys a broad autonomy, maintaining its own flag, police force, airline and web domain (.ax). The archipelago also has its own postage stamps and can issue its own passports, in addition to being a separate member of the Nordic Council. Incidentally, Nordic Council President Britt Lundberg of Åland recently voted alongside her Swedish colleagues against the Finnish delegation's initiative to make Finnish an official working language in the Nordic Council.

The islanders gained this unparalleled level of autonomy after Finland's declaration of independence from Russia in 1917. As an overwhelming majority of Åland voted to leave and join Sweden, Finland refused to give up sovereignty, whereupon the League of Nations allowed Helsinki to keep the islands as long as they were granted significant rights and protections.

Åland was first demilitarized during the times of the Grand Duchy of Finland, as a concession to Russia's Crimean War adversaries in 1856, after Åland's then foremost fortress of Bomarsund was destroyed by British and French warships in 1854. In 1922, another agreement was signed by the UN's predecessor, the League of Nations, guaranteeing Åland demilitarization in peacetime and neutrality during a war. In 1940, a separate agreement was concluded between Finland and the Soviet Union. Since then, a consulate of the Soviet Union and later Russia has been present in Saltvik, Åland, to oversee Finland's obligations regarding the island's demilitarization.