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DefenceTalk<\/p>\nDefenceTalk<\/p>\n
Finland\u2019s air force, which for over a century has had a Swastika as part of its emblem, has replaced the controversial Nazi-linked symbol with a golden eagle, the military said Thursday.<\/p>\n
The decision to remove the emblem was actually made in 2017, but it has taken time to roll out the change and only received widespread attention this week when a Helsinki professor spotted the change.<\/p>\n
According to the air force, the new emblem with a golden eagle has been its official logo since 2002 but some units and aircraft kept the one featuring a swastika, which was the official logo from 1918-1945.<\/p>\n
Since 1945, Finnish military aircraft have featured a white-blue-white roundel as the national insignia but the swastika remained in some unit emblems, unit flags and decorations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that we\u2019ve had to explain for foreigners who connect it to Nazi Germany, even though it has a completely different background,\u201d military press officer Henrik Gahmberg told AFP.<\/p>\n
While the swastika in modern times is associated with Nazi Germany, the symbol, and variants of it, has been used in Hinduism and several other Indo-European religions since ancient times.<\/p>\n
Finland\u2019s air force adopted the symbol after the Swedish count Eric von Rosen donated a plane, which had his good luck charm \u2014 a blue swastika \u2014 painted on the wings, to the newly independent Finland in 1918.<\/p>\n
Before then Finland was under Russian rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe swastika has also been part of Finnish mythology, so it was natural to use it,\u201d Gahmberg said.<\/p>\n
The change has been rolled out quietly without the air force communicating it but it received media attention after Teivo Teivainen, a professor of World Politics at the University of Helsinki, tweeted about it on June 30.<\/p>\n
While the Finnish air force\u2019s adoption predates the Nazis\u2019 use of the symbol, von Rosen did have a connection to the Nazis as he was the brother-in-law of Hermann Goring \u2014 future supremo of the German air force.<\/p>\n
During World War II, Finland also fought alongside the Axis powers against the Soviet Union, but in 1944 it also fought against Germany in the Lapland War.<\/p>\n