The Åland Islands: Between Peace and Security | TVP World Special Report

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has reshaped debates about security throughout Europe.

In the Åland Islands, an autonomous Swedish-speaking region of Finland, residents demonstrate daily in solidarity with Ukraine while living in a region that has remained demilitarized for more than 170 years.

“It started the day the war started in 2022. We were a little frightened because we know what happened in 1939 when the Soviet Union attacked Finland. We have been doing this every day since the war started,” Mosse Wallén told TVP World. He had similarly protested in front of the same building – which housed the Soviet consulate at the time – when the Red Army invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. "I belong to the generation that is demonstrating."

The 75-year-old attends the protests every day despite being in recovery from recent heart surgery.

“This has to stop. And we can’t stop (demonstrating) now. We have to continue and continue and continue,” he said.

Join TVP World’s Correspondent Karl Baptist, whose Special Report “Between Peace and Security” explores the impact of the war on the peaceful archipelago and whether the locals, whose islands’ special status has largely shielded them from the turbulence of global conflict, have reasons to fear that their nearly 200 years of peaceful existence might end.

Chapters:
00:00 The Åland Islands’ identity and demilitarized status
02:13 History of Åland’s demilitarization and its maintenance after Finland joined NATO
04:11 Daily protests against Russia’s war in Ukraine
07:33 The Åland Islands as a symbol of stability in a Europe uncertain of what the future may bring

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