“We will agree to solve the conflict basing on the model, if Nagorno Karabakh is granted autonomy under Finland, not under Azerbaijan.â€
The then Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Tofig Zulfugarov:
“It seems now they consider themselves Swedes,†said.
After a while, in 2005 president of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, rapporteur on Nagorno Karabakh Goran Lennmarker in his report recommended Azerbaijan and Armenia to use the Aland Islands model for the settlement of the conflict. Co-rapporteur of PACE Monitoring Committee on Azerbaijan Andreas Gross also put forth this idea.
The Aland Islands is the archipelago with 27,000 inhabitants and consisting of 6757 islands. Russia invaded the Aland Islands and Finland in 1809 and the archipelago was declared a demilitarized territory in 1856. In 1917 Finland gained independence after the Soviet government was formed and a question appeared – Who do the Aland Islands belong to? To Finland, or to Sweden? Maybe, these islands should be independent? In 1921 according to the decision of the League of Nations, the Aland Islands were granted the status of autonomy under Finland. It is difficult to say whether Finland won the situation or not.
“Only 5% of the population speaks Finnish in the Aland Islands, Swedish is mainly spoken here. Therefore, Finland had to accept Swedish as the second official language,†says Gunnar Jansson, second Vice-President of the CE Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
According to him, there are various methods to solve the problem of national minorities and the autonomy is the best of them. Jansson says that political will should be demonstrated for this, adoption of such decisions have successful results in democratic societies. Member of Aland government Gunnar Westerhorn tells us that there are 16 municipalities in the autonomous territory.
“According to the decision made by the League of Nations in 1921, Finland is to ensure protection of the Swedish language, culture and local laws. Demilitarization and neutrality are ensured by the international community,†he says.
Westerhorn says that Aland has its own lands, flag, airlines, stamps, Internet domain (.ax). There are Swedish and Russian consulates, six ministries, seven ministers, 30-seat parliament, two local newspapers and a TV channel. Members of six parties not depending on Finland are represented in the Aland parliament. The Aland Islands have the right to veto the decisions of the Finnish government concerning foreign affairs. Besides, the islands are also represented in 200-seat Finnish parliament. According to Westerhorn, president of Finland consults with the local parliament and appoints the head of the Aland Islands. The issues on language, legislation and taxes are solved through dialogue between the Aland Islands and Finland. All kinds of taxes collected in the Aland Islands are transferred to the budget of Finland. The main fields of the economy of the islands are navigation, tourism and agriculture. Editor of the local radio’s news service Bank Hangus tells us that such kind of autonomy is sufficient for the Aland Islands.
“This autonomy is sufficient for us, we do not need independence. Broad discussions on the issue of independence were held during the elections last year and 70% of the population was against it. Residents of the Aland Islands consider that autonomy is sufficient for them. It provides more opportunities for the people, for example it is easy to compete for local business,†he says.
But the journalist considers though the Aland system is very good for the settlement of conflicts, it is difficult to apply it to other conflicts, as well as to the conflicts in the Caucasus.
Member of the Aland parliament Barbro Sundback also says that the islands do not need full independence.
“We do not want independence at all; I do not think that it will give us more rights. On the other hand, the Aland Islands’ becoming a part of Sweden is not an ideal variant. It would create a number of problems for us. We have a lot of differences with Sweden.
May be we will be independent one day, but it is not on the agenda now,†he says.
Other member of Aland Parliament Rojer Janson stated the same opinion when he speaks to us. If majority of people consider that, autonomy under Finland does not favor them, then there will be referendum on the independence .We are sure that, if our people pass decision on independence, Finnish troops will not be deployed to our islands,†he said. Mr. Rojer is sure that, Aland Islands are not ready economically. Aland Islands are not only the territory that demands autonomy and respect to Swedish language from Finland. Opinions of Barbro Teyr, editor of one of the popular newspaper publishing in Helsinki are more interesting.
“7 newspapers in Swedish language are published in Finland and only two of them are published in Aland Islands. There are more two regions which demand autonomy from Finland. There is no serious problem with language in the country. There are a lot of marriage-contacts between people speaking different languages. If the family is bilingual, the children are sent to Swedish schools. There is Swedish TV channel in Finland.65% of parliamentarians are Swedish speaking citizens,†he said.
How is common people’s opinion on this issue? We are speaking to Mr.Byorn , who is working in one of the chemist’s in Aland Islands. He considers that, language and self-determination are not important issues.
“The mains issues are peace and democratic society. These factors give people an opportunity to live comfortably. My wife is in Helsinki, but I was born in Aland Islands. We are speaking in Swedish language in the family. We do not hate to one of these languages,†he said.
Residents of local bar say that, Aland residents are happy and they are satisfied with everything. But everybody is not satisfied with autonomy under Finland. We were in a party of our friend. They did not know that, we were journalists and we were preparing the article on application of Aland model in the settlement of the conflicts. Hostess supposed that we are Russian tourists and said that you are in one of the typical Swedish parties. We replied that, are not we in Sweden? The woman answer that our hearts and spirits are linked to Sweden. We love Sweden.
Some Finnish have not information about the problem of Aland Islands and its solution. “We are in democratic society. If residents of Aland Islands want autonomy, let them get it,†Manager Robert said .He said that, there are Finnish and Swedish who consider that, Aland Islands problem is actual. All conflicts and controversies are not important in Scandinavian countries. There is Viking Line ship traveling between Helsinki and Stockholm, Stockholm and Mariehamn, Mariehamn and Helsinki. Swedish, Finnish and residents of Aland have equal rights here. There are a lot of bars, discotheques, duty free shops, except popular cabins here. The people drink, dance and talk here. Drunk Swedish Greta and Finnish Margaret said that these are only policy, these issues are not important for us. Pease and democracy are enough for us.
Only one Azerbaijani lives in Aland Islands since March in 2006, according to official statistics. Unfortunately, we could not find him. There are not Armenians here but you can find Turks, Iranian, and Russian here. There is an old Moslem cemetery near Bommashen castle in Mariehamn. About 100 Muslims were buried in this cemetery. Tatars exiled from Caucasus to the Aland Islands during Russian Empire were buried there. They were sent to exile to the Aland Islands from Caucasus, because they helped to Turkey during Russian-Turkish wars. It is not difficult that we are speaking about our countrymen.
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