ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Milan Jaff, a Kurdish rapper who rose to prominence in Finland through music and social media, has rejected portrayals in Finnish media that describe him as a "mafia boss," saying such labels are misleading and based on his artistic image rather than his real life.
In an interview with Rudaw on January 11, Jaff said the characterization stems largely from the title of one of his songs, Kurdish Mafia, which he described as a performance concept rather than an organized group. He said he views himself primarily as an artist and performer, adding that the persona presented in music videos should not be confused with his personal life.
Jaff, who said he moved to Finland as a teenager and began his career through prank videos before turning to rap, acknowledged that he has been involved in legal cases in Finland but disputed the accuracy and context of many allegations reported about him. Finnish authorities have convicted him of a range of criminal charges, including violent and sexual offenses and weapons-related accusations. Jaff said several claims were unfounded or exaggerated and stressed that court proceedings are complex, saying that some charges have been dropped, reduced, or are still under appeal.
He also said he believes his case became politicized amid debates over migration and crime in Finland, arguing that public narratives about him were shaped by broader anti-immigrant sentiment.
Jaff said he served prison sentences in Finland and was later deported after authorities revoked his residency, though he said legal challenges related to his case remain ongoing. He returned to the Kurdistan Region voluntarily in 2025, according to his account.
While Jaff acknowledged making mistakes, he denied being part of organized crime and said he regrets situations where violence occurred. He said he plans to continue making music and emphasized that his work reflects artistic expression rather than real-world conduct.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Milan Jaff:
Rudaw: Finnish media covering you call you a mafia leader and mafia boss. Do you see yourself as a mafia boss?
Milan Jaff: No, that is simply propaganda and nothing more. I have a song called ‘Kurdish Mafia,’ and they have used that as a reason to label me that way. I am just a singer; I rap. ‘Kurdish Mafia’ is only the name of one of my songs.
Who is Milan Jaff? If someone doesn't know you and wants to find out, how would you introduce yourself?
I'm a young person who lives in Finland. I used to make prank videos and things like that, then I started singing, and through music, I became more known in Finland, yes.
Are you well-known in Finland?
Yes.
When you say you're well known, is it not that you became known in the ordinary sense?
No.
…Where are you from? How old are you? How did you get to Europe?
I'm from Garmiyan [independent administration]. I went to Europe when I was 15 or 16, and I've been in Finland since 2017. My life started there. I was in school before. I never liked school since childhood. I wanted to go into MMA. At the time when I was in a camp, a children's camp.
You left at 16 and arrived at 17? You were born in 2000, right?
Yes. In the children's camp, I wanted to… because we were always fighting and [doing] such things as kids, they were hitting me as a child, I wanted to grow up so no one could hit me, and so I'd be one of those who hit others. So I wanted to go into MMA and fight there. But at that time, at the children's camp, they wouldn't take me. I knew I was good at it because as kids that was always our thing, and then…
Fighting?
Yes, at school, you'd get hit, and you'd hit them.
Did you hit them or did they hit you?
Well, I'd hit them, and they'd hit back, as such.
From what age did no one manage to hit you? At what age could no one beat you?
From about 15 or 16, around that time.
Then, no one could hit you.
I don't remember it when I was very young, but…
You were in a camp when you were under 18, but you couldn't go into MMA?
Yes, the reason I couldn’t was because at the time they said… I was in a city called Lohja. I was away from Lohja and there was a place called Sintio, I lived there in a camp. It was a big house, like a large Airbnb. Because it was far, they said you can't go, because you're the only one who wants that thing, what is it called in Kurdish?
MMA.
You are the only person, the others are not going because it is difficult for them to take me and bring me back. Then when I turned 18, I went to Helsinki and my life started there.
But at 17, you wanted MMA? MMA, people here may not be very familiar with it, but MMA is such a tough sport that you could die in it. It's very serious, not ordinary fighting; it involves punching and kicking, and it's one of the most dangerous sports. What kind of passion was that which you had?
I always loved fighting. I wanted to go do it as a sport for myself because I loved fighting. I knew I was good at it. That's why I didn't study at school; it didn't go into my head. I was very bad at school; I'd fall asleep on the desk, it was so unpleasant for me.
For fighting, you had no trouble.
But for fighting, I wasn't like that. I liked it because I knew I'd find myself in it.
After you arrived in Finland, you had a very interesting story there, you form a group called Kurdish Mafia. What is this group, the Kurdish Mafia?
That wasn't a group in itself. I had started singing at that time, so I called my own brethren, my friends. When you release a song, you can't sing it alone, you need people around you, you need to have nice car, like Xatar [Giwar Hajabi, Kurdish rapper in Germany] like those other Kurds who sing, Kurdish rappers. You need people with you, like an actor. You have to be like an actor. So I called my own friends and we released the song Kurdish Mafia.
Rap?
Yes.
You're a good rapper, at least that's how it appears in the videos. Did you learn rap in Kurdistan or in Finland?
No, in Finland.
What made you turn to rap?....
At that time, I didn't even listen to rap, I wasn't intending to [do it]. When I went there, I listened to a lot of rap because most of my brothers listened to rap. One friend was a singer himself, his name was Turisti. He is a very famous singer in Finland now; a lot of people have listened to his songs this year and in previous year. Through that way, he called me. He wasn't very famous at the time. He said, ‘We want you to come and make a song for you.’ I said I don't know how to sing. He said, ‘No problem, come, and we'll teach you.’ I was very young at the time…
So it was through someone? But how did that person know you to tell you to come do rap?
At that time, I was making prank videos and content…
On social media?
People would watch and recognize me. Through that, he sent me a message. He knew me, but I didn't know him.
What I read in Finnish media says your Instagram account very quickly reached 91,000 followers. For Finland, that's a lot because it's a small community of about 5 million people, I think. Your YouTube video had two to three million views. How did you enter Finnish society so quickly?
I knew how to present myself in a way that would draw people's attention. You have to be an actor- I am a different actor from the others. I did things that others in Finland weren’t doing. There were records that other Finnish artists didn't dare to attempt, and because of that, people watched me more.
You were 18 when you went to Helsinki?
Yes.
How did you learn Finnish so quickly?
I studied Finnish at school there, but most of it I learned through friends.
Do you speak Finnish well?
Yes, I speak good Finnish…
The Finnish police say Milan Jaff is charged with assault, sexual assault, attempted murder, use of weapons, including a Kalashnikov and a pistol, threatening, home invasion, deprivation of liberty, as well as drug matters and several other types of crimes. What do you say about all these charges that the Finnish police say Milan Jaff committed?
I wanted to start with the time when Rudaw published something about me. I was a little upset because most of what was said wasn't true.
Rudaw [obtained its information from] Finnish sources. What I read is what the Finnish police, those aren't my words. That's why I've come to interview you. Why does the police say these things about you?
Okay, let's start with the sexual assault [charge], which is simply baseless, the assault. There was a girl who was in one of my music videos. She was older than me. She was very fond of me. I was not in a relationship with her in the sense of a relationship. Because I wasn't with her, that was the reason she filed a complaint against me, and it is completely baseless.
She filed a complaint because you rejected her?
That's something, I don't know what they call it in Kurdish, meaning the details are hidden, the papers and I can't talk about it much. But…
Meaning she made an accusation against you?
Yes, she made an accusation against me. There are many singers, many footballers, [Cillian] Mbappe, [Achraf] Hakimi, [Takeshi]69, many big singers and famous actors who have had charges fabricated against them like that, to become famous and to give them money. Now, after me, that girl has appeared on TV three or four times and has been in other places; she made herself famous through me. That is baseless. I didn't need to do that. If I liked any girl, I could start a relationship with her, because when you're famous, you can do anything; it's much easier when you're a known person. It has no basis.
If we talk about the fights, I've seen some videos. In one video, you knock a guy down with a punch, caught on a surveillance camera. In another video, I think you're in prison, someone throws a bowl of hot oil, frying oil, into your face. I don't know how your face didn't burn and wasn't destroyed. Then you start fighting there. Your fights, at least from the videos, are there, explain those to me.
That is why the Finns, for the most part, may talk, but they still like me, because they know I say things as they are in my songs, I say I'm that kind of person, and I don't lie. Prison there is different from prison here. People come to pick a fight with you if you don’t hold your ground there; people won't leave you alone, and everyone will get used to [attacking you]. You must not let anyone cross the red line. Those I fought, one of them was the one who threw hot water on my face. I had previously hit a friend of their group. I didn't know he was their friend; he had set a trap for me, but it didn't work. The other one, you wake up in the morning, you have no energy, and a man picks a fight with you. You haven't even washed your face, and he starts a fight with you. That's how it was. The issue became two cases.
He comes and grabs your collar [harasses you].
He comes and grabs your collar [harasses you]. What can you do?
What is the conversation? Before you land a punch, there is a heated exchange between you.
Yes, I was reading a newspaper. I pulled a piece of bread out… it is the dining place.
Is that also a prison?
It is also a prison. It is a dining place, and you were not supposed to be reading a newspaper there. I pulled a piece of bread and put it on the newspaper so I could tie the food bag so it wouldn't spoil. Then he touched my bread. I said why are you touching it? And that's how the case started. Then, like that, the case became two cases.
Is it worth a punch?
That's prison; if you don't speak, the others will learn.
But outside of prison, too, there are many stories of fights about you?
The others were also because of friends and Kurds.
How many fights have you been in? Do you remember?
Not really.
Tens? Hundreds?
No, no, it’s not that many. We don’t need to talk about it; the paper is in your hands.
You've been charged with theft. What do you say about that?
It was- he owed money.
How?
That fella had taken money from our friends… They ask for help, they're Kurds, you have to help them.
And the person they turned to was you?
He came so I can resolve it for them.
How was the mediation? What does a mediation done by Milan Jaff look like?...
… They'd bring them to me, I'd sit them down and say, ‘Brothers, don't fight, be good men. We're refugees, let's not let these racists [look down on us].’ Then, the issue became such that it could’t be resolved and turned into something else.
You hit him?
Well, that's how it went…
It is mentioned that you deprived people of their liberty.
I don't deprive people of their liberty.
For example, enslaving people, detaining people from their homes, and imprisoning people, what are these?
No, none of that is real. I'm not the kind of person to go out on the street and imprison people on my own. If anything did happen, it wasn't with an unknown person; that matter had something else behind it, an issue, like money being taken or those things.
…Were most of your friends Kurds?
Yes, most of them were Kurds.
Did you have Finnish friends?
Yes, we have Finnish.
Romanian, Russian?
Romanian, Russian, we know all of those.
All of these, if they had problems, they'd come to you, or at least most of them?
Most of them, yes. They know each other, and Finland isn't very big, so we'd help them.
Meaning those who had money problems or who were threatened, they came to you for help?
Yes.
Do you want to say that all these charges against you came as a result of helping your friends?
My own mistakes were part of it, but most of it was because of helping friends. I gave a lot of help to Kurdish friends; I didn't want any Kurd to be wronged in that country. And because of that, we got into a lot of fights.
One of the charges against you is about weapons. Are weapons available in Finland? Is it that easy to obtain them?
They exist.
Did you have weapons?
No, I didn't have weapons. They didn't see weapons on me; they only say so.
Were you caught with a weapon?
No, I was not caught with a weapon.
You are charged with attempted murder. Attempted murder of whom?
I don't know who they're talking about. I told the court that I have not killed anyone and have not attempted to kill anyone. There was only disputes with another group; how do I say it in Kurdish? My Kurdish has become a bit [weaker]...
Have you threatened them?
No, not as threats, but I said, in gentle words, I spoke with them gently.
You said with kind words, “I'll kill you"?
No, none of those things were in it.
When you make the group, you name it AK-47, that's the name of the Kalashnikov. Why that name? It's written AK-47 in all your videos, too. Why did you choose AK-47?...
That's not a group… it was just a number of friends. AK-47, in Mardin, a Kurdish city [in southeastern Turkey], because the Kurds there most of them use it… The Kurds here in Kurdistan [Region] use it. The Peshmerga fought with that weapon. It's a Kurdish symbol, it's a Kurdish weapon, and the Peshmerga fought and still fight with that weapon. So I made it a symbol because it's a Kurdish symbol. I think every household might have one like it…
But from all those Kurdish symbols, for example, we have walnuts, we have Kurdish honey, why did you choose the Kalashnikov?
Well, how do you put walnuts into rap? Rap and walnuts don't go together. But a Kalashnikov and rap do go together.
…In your own rap videos on YouTube, you present yourself as a gangster type, and that the situation is under your control, and Helsinki is under your control. The police say the same. In the video, it appears that way, a lot of people around you talk about prison and fighting and those things. How much of that was your actual real life?
In real life, I like to help a lot of people, and that's how I've been. But on social media and in music, that's a different life. Like an actor who presents himself in a film, you have to do the same in music, and there's no difference. I am like an actor, that's how I am on social media and in my YouTube music. That's just performance; in real life, I'm a different person.
What are you like?
Soft and gentle.
What did an ordinary day in Finland look like for you?
Sometimes I worked.
What work did you use to do?
Yes, I worked. Shop work with a friend, a car wash and those, along with restaurant work. I did some of those too. Also, renovation work, I don't know what it's called in Kurdish.
Delivery?
No, renovation is when you go to a house…
Renovation?
Yes, renovation, I did those too.
Were you working continuously?
I was also going to school at that time, and I was doing sports. I was always doing sports.
What is your story with prison?... How many times did you go to prison?
Twice. The first time was two months.
What year was the first time?
2020.
You arrived at the end of 2017, two years after arriving, and you ended up in prison. On what charge? Fighting?
Fighting and disturbing someone's home, and theft, but later they dropped the theft charge. For the fighting and the other matter, they sentenced me.
What sentence did you receive at that time?
At that time, it was one year and five months, I don't remember exactly. Two months of the sentence I spent in prison…For ten or twelve months of my sentence, I was imprisoned outside.
…Outisde, under police supervision? Could you leave the house?
Yes I could. I had to visit the police weekly… and talk to them.
And the second time?
…The second time I was arrested…
On the charges I mentioned before?
Yes, it was on those matters.
How many years were you sentenced? How long did the trial take?
It took a long time, two years of court proceedings, or around a year
What year was the second time?
It started in 2021 until 2023.
For two consecutive years, you were in prison?
…It's a bit different; the court there is not like here. There, if a sentence is given and you're not satisfied, you can take it to a higher court.
….How many years were you sentenced to in the lower court?
I was sentenced to 10 years.
You appealed the decision?
There were two courts, one gave 10 years, and the other, four or five months later, also demanded 10 more years, meaning 20 years.
What was it in the end?
In the end, with everything combined, it was close to 9 years. The first 10 years that were demanded were removed because they had no proof that I had done that thing, so it was dropped. The other 10 years they gave me, I didn't accept and took it to a higher court. There, they reduced the 10 years to 6 years and 2 months. With all the other sentences combined, it came close to 9 years.
But up to now, you still had residence status there? You had no passport?
Yes.
You were in prison until you came back to Kurdistan. How did you spend those six years? Starting from 2021, were you in prison the whole time?... What was the atmosphere inside the prison like?
In prison there, they had made it difficult for me because they said you are a street gang leader. They had placed me in the section of those who had a lot of problems, the dangerous ones. Fights break out often there. A man doesn’t want to lower his head. It wasn’t bad, but there you'd be let outside for very few hours per day, sometimes three hours a day.
How many fights did you face? Two are on video, how many other fights did you have?
I think about ten or fifteen fights.
…There are groups in prison, and everyone has their own group?
Yes, that exists too.
Did you have enemies inside prison?
Yes, there were those who didn't like me.
Who were those who were against you?
…There were Arabs too, there were Finns too, and people from the Livi who wear the thing...
When you were in prison, then afterwards, in September 2025 Finland decided to revoke your residency and deport you back to Kurdistan. But at first you challenged it, then you withdrew your appeal and said you'd return yourself, you'd go back to Kurdistan voluntarily. How did that happen? After four years in prison?
I was released from prison, and they took me to a closed camp. I said I should go back myself.
When did you get out of prison?
In August 2025...
What is a closed camp?
It is a place where you can’t go out. It is like a prison, but you have your phone and other things.
How come you decided to come back?
I said let me go back to Kurdistan, I don't even like it there [Finland]. I had no energy left there, and I'd been there a long time. I didn't have the patience to wait either. So I said why not go back? Our own country is much nicer than Finland.
But you say "if I want, I'll go back", according to the Finnish court's decision, you are permanently banned from Finland. You are banned from all Schengen countries. You are not allowed to enter 29 countries for as long as you live on this earth. Is that right?
That court case of mine is still pending. My appeal is still there. I've come back on my own will now… but I haven't dropped the case. They don't have the right to ban me permanently; it's only 10 years. But that too is only on paper and nothing more.
How is it only on paper?
The friends who were with me, two of them, were deported. They're now in Italy and France. My other friends are many, like that. So there's nothing to it, and it's just paper.
If you go to the airport, it's not just paper, but you have your own sepcial way, I assume?
Yes.
Something is strange to me, regarding travel, a court bans you from a place, now you're talking to me and saying going back is very easy. All the world's systems, all this border control that exists, is it still this easy for you to travel through Europe?
Not ‘us’, just me.
Is it this easy for you to travel whenever you want to go back?
Isn’t it that everyone who goes from Kurdistan gets through?
Not everyone gets through.
I get through.
Is it that easy for you?
Yes.
My point is, all this technology that exists in the world, all this effort, and the billions of euros the European Union spends, it still hasn't managed to stop Milan Jaff?
I haven't said I'm going back; you are about to send me back by force. Kurdistan is very beautiful, and I'm not going back.
Your case is still in court there. You said you were tired of it there. But your lifestyle there was very different, can you live here as before?
Yes, I can, because I was like that there too. I don't pick fights with anyone. Kurdistan here is different, everyone is relatives and family. The people here are much more respectful than those there. The fights and things I did were mostly because of helping Kurdish friends. Here, the Finnish friend who I am doing the documentary with, I have taken him to bazaar and I showed him all that money sitting there in that market [referring to currency exchange on stands], no one comes to steal. All those gold and things here, no one comes to steal. No one fights. Everyone is like brothers. Here I live very normally, and I am just a Kurd. That lifestyle, there is nothing.
What were your expectations before you went to Europe at 16? Did those turn out as you had imagined?
When I thought about it, I wanted to go and become something [someone important] and help people, help poor and needy people.
You did become something, but what kind, people decide that.
People decide that.
Finland says it wasn't good. You helped people, too, but through fighting.
If we look at it, Finland is the most racist country in Europe. How are they first every year among the happiest countries? They're first in that too, but it's not true that they're the happiest country; I really don't know how that is. I wanted to become something. I always loved characters from childhood, I loved films a lot, and I loved movies and action, I used to watch them a lot..
I know people who live in Scandinavian countries. I know people who went one or two years before you and now have passports, work in the arts field, and have no problems; they never once crossed paths with the police. But how is it that you went there and got into all these problems? What happened? Where do you yourself think you went wrong?
In the first fight, with that friend I told you about, we had a first fight. After that, we resolved the issue, but said let's put up a show and not tell people we made jokes [resolution]. We created a fight and did it. From there, [things changed] a bit. I didn't intend to become popular or a gangster there. I never wanted to harm people. But then, when those things happened, people pick fights with you, and step by step, all the problems came together, and that's how it was. It was God's fate, I can't say what it was.
So from that point, you had a friend, you had a fight with him, and made peace?
He wasn't my friend. He was a famous person, and we argued on social media.
You reconciled, but said let's keep going on social media. After that, for a show, you arranged a fight. You has to do the fight?
Yes.
But you had made peace, why did you fight?
He said let's do it, it would be shameful if people later say they didn't fight. We went to a gym, wore gloves, and fought.
Who defeated the other?
We Kurds don’t get defeated. Four countries are attacking us from all sides, and we remain as we are.
Where was he from?
He was Iranian.
You broadcast the fight?...
Yes, that fight was streamed. From there, people picked fights with me on the street. I was also young and didn't know the reason. People would come on the street and say, ‘Let's fight.’ Well, you won't say I won't do it.
Don't you feel that you yourself are a fighter and that you like fighting?
I never fight with my friends. We've had arguments with friends, but I never want those fights. I never fought with my own friends. The fights weren't the kind where you go out on the street and grab someone by the collar and hit them; that's a very ugly thing… But it's people, they don't leave you alone. They're friends and Kurds who come and ask for help; you help them. I wasn't part of the issue, but I got involved.
But didn't it occur to you in the end that this is fighting, and why don't people call me for their happy occasions, come with us, instead of calling me for fights? Didn't you think about that?
…My fights were only with one group. I didn't fight with all of Finland.
I've seen only once a young man being deported from a country, and the parliament of that country, all of them gathering in parliament, writing "Milan Jaff, Goodbye, we got rid of you." And this young man is you, a Kurd, from Garmiyan. This is a first.
There's something else behind that. They turned it into a political [issue] because those racists have never liked refugees.
Are the group are right-wingers?
Yes, they are right-wingers; they exist in all of Europe, in Britain. And they are in the government now. Their situation is very bad. I always talk about them in my videos. I don’t only appear as a rapper, I don’t only appear as someone who fights. I sing about politics there; they don’t like this, and their situation is very bad now because when they came to power, they said we won’t allow the money to have more expenses because they are in great debt. They are millions in debt. They said we will change people’s lives and so. They said they would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, but hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost during their time, and… tens of thousands of people have gone bankrupt in their country. People don’t have money. They turned my issue into a political one to say they have done something good. Many thousands of Finnish people are in prison, 95 percent of the prisons are [holding] Finnish [people]. It is true that I have made mistakes. I have apologized to them, and I apologize to the Kurds there whom I have wronged when I was young. I did not know. I went down the wrong path. People should not think that these racists are only doing this because of me. They used me as a reason
Are they using you for political bidding?
Yes, they are using me for political bidding. Several years before me, when I wasn't around, they didn’t speak well of refugees. Now they say refugees only consume monthly funds [from the government]... But those racists have now looked into how much tax refugees pay, and it turned out that refugees pay the most, I don’t know what it called, taxes. They pay the most money, [more] than the racists. They don't even pay money; they sit at home drinking, beating their wives, they fry this… and make bad comments about refugees. We refugees in Finland work more than those racist Finns. They're comfortable sitting at home doing nothing.
…In all your videos, there is the Kurdistan flag. You talk about Kurdistan and being Kurdish. Even now, you're wearing a T-shirt with the Kurdistan flag on it.
Kurds have suffered greatly across all four parts of Kurdistan. So I always present myself as Kurdish because for me, any Kurd, whether from Western, Eastern, Northern, or Southern Kurdistan, wherever they are, I don't say that one is from there or that one is Iranian. I consider them all as Kurds. Whether I'm from Garmiyan or Sulaimani or Erbil, I consider myself Kurdish, and I want us to be united… to improve our own country and help each other. I have always said I'm Kurdish and wanted to help Kurds. I've always said I'm Kurdish and never said I'm Iraqi. Whenever they ask me, I say I'm Kurdish, and when they say from where? I say Kurdistan. It's not that I'm racist or hate Arabs, hate Turks, hate Syrians, or hate Iranians; I have friends from all of them. But I hate those who hate Kurds.
Should people here be scared or worried that you've come back?
No, because I'm not that kind of person, and in our own countries, things like that don't exist. I'm not a mafia person; it's just that my songs have ‘Kurdish Mafia’ in the name... It's only the name of the songs.
Will you give up music and rap here?
I intend to continue.
Thank you. If you have something to share, please go ahead. I have no more questions.
I hope this helps people, and God willing, the Finnish channels will see this too, but I am not the person they describe... The mafia and those things, it's not like that. It was a group of friends. If we made any mistakes, we apologize from here. I also ask forgiveness from the Kurds of Finland if I made any mistakes. Thank you.
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