A NATO member is preparing to phase out the use of swastikas on some unit flags in a bid to avoid awkwardness with allies. Finland, which joined the alliance following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has a long history is using swastikas which dates back far beyond its incorporation as a symbol of the Nazis.

Since the Second World War, the symbol has become one of tyranny and evil but has a complex history which stretches beyond the birth of Adolf Hitler’s fascist party. Change has been planned for years but its sudden ascension to NATO membership has seen plans accelerated. Col. Tomi Bohm, the new head of Karelia Air Wing air defence force, was quoted as saying in a report by the public broadcaster YLE: “We could have continued with this flag, but sometimes awkward situations can arise with foreign visitors. It may be wise to live with the times.”

Finnish authorities say that the plans are an effort “to update the symbolism and emblems of the flags to better reflect the current identity of the Air Force.”

Teivo Teivainen, a professor of world politics at the University of Helsinki, said the flags in question were introduced in the 1950s and today are flown by four Air Force units.

The Air Force and the Finnish public generally had for years insisted the swastikas used in Finland’s air force “have nothing to do with the Nazi swastika,” said Teivainen, who this month had a book published whose Finnish title translates as “History of the Swastika.”

But now, following Finland’s integration with NATO, policymakers have decided “there’s now a need to get more integrated with the forces of countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and France – countries where the swastika is clearly a negative symbol,” he said.

Teivainen said that in 2021, German air force units bowed out of a final ceremony following exercises at a military base in Finland’s Lapland region after learning that the Finnish swastikas would be on display.

Finland’s air force adopted the swastika emblem in 1918 soon after country gained its independence after more than a century of Imperial Russian rule.

Count Eric von Rosen of neighbouring Sweden donated Finland’s first military plane in 1918, which bore his personal symbol, the swastika.

The Finnish air force soon after adopted a blue swastika on a white background as the national insignia on all its planes from 1918 to 1945. After the war, the imagery remained for decades on some Air Force unit flags and decorations as well as on the insignia of the Air Force Academy.

New flags – featuring an eagle – will be published when the work has been completed and the flags are introduced into use for events like parades and local ceremonies, the Defence Forces said, without saying when that would happen.