Finnish Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former president Ahtisaari dies at 86

Martti Ahtisaari, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and 10th president of Finland between 1994 and 2000, died Monday at the age of 86, the Finnish president’s office announced in a statement.

Ahtisaari was celebrated around the world for brokering peace in conflict zones in Kosovo, Indonesia and Northern Ireland. He refused to accept that wars and conflicts were inevitable.

“Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be resolved, and there is no excuse for letting them drag on,” Ahtisaari said while accepting the Nobel Prize in 2008.

Its global fame raised Finland’s image as it emerged from the shadow of the former Soviet Union.

At home, Ahtisaari has always been a political outsider. But it was precisely his lack of political connections that helped him win Finland’s first direct presidential election, in 1994, as head of the opposition Social Democratic party.

As president, he supported Finland’s membership in the European Union and encouraged voters to support the 1994 membership referendum, which passed with 57 percent support.

Opponents criticized his frequent travels – his nickname was “Traveling Mara”, a common diminutive for Martti – and said he should focus more on domestic issues as Finland sinks deeper into recession triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union, then its main trading partner.

In subsequent years, he broke from his party line by encouraging Finland to become a full member of NATO. This happened years before Finland finally joined the alliance in 2023, in response to neighboring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“ETERNALLY DISPLACED”

Ahtisaari was born in 1937 in Viipuri, now part of Russia, and his family was forced to flee when Soviet forces attacked when he was two years old.

He said those early years made him “an eternally displaced person” sensitive to the plight of refugees.

After his military service, he became a teacher and participated in an educational project in Pakistan, an experience which he says opened his eyes to the world outside his native country.

He joined the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1965 and was appointed Finnish ambassador to Tanzania in 1973.

One of his first major diplomatic achievements was helping Namibia gain independence after years of bloody conflict with South Africa.

He served as United Nations Commissioner for Namibia from 1977 to 1981 and held various positions in the region until the early 1990s.

Acting as the EU’s spokesman, he persuaded Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1999 to accept NATO terms to end the Kosovo air campaign.

He continued to focus on conflict resolution after leaving the presidency in 2000, helping to advance the Northern Ireland peace process as a weapons inspector.

He created the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), an independent organization focused on conflict resolution. The group facilitated a peace process between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement in 2005. Its seven-month mediation efforts led to an agreement ending a three-decade conflict in Aceh.

Later that year, he returned to the Balkans as a UN special envoy. He is widely credited with helping pave the way for Kosovo’s independence with the support of Western countries.

A few months later, the Nobel committee awarded him the Peace Prize, citing his work on several continents for more than three decades.

He is survived by his wife, Eeva, and his son, Marko, a technology entrepreneur and former head of design at Nokia.