‘We do not want to be Americans’: Greenlanders fear US threat to annex

US President Donald Trump’s latest moves to acquire Greenland are rattling Nuuk and Copenhagen.

Copenhagen, Denmark – An international camera crew is being ushered out of Aaja Chemnitz’s office in the Danish parliament to make room for the next interview. Politely but firmly, the journalists are asked to leave – quickly. The busy Greenlandic politician – one of the two MPs with seats in the Danish parliament – is juggling back-to-back media requests as international attention intensifies.

Last week, she took part in a crisis meeting with the Danish foreign relations committee – a meeting with only one item on the agenda: the rapidly worsening relations between the Kingdom of Denmark and its NATO ally, the United States – driven by President Donald Trump’s push to acquire Greenland.

“Greenland is not for sale, and Greenland will never be for sale,” Chemnitz, from the Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party, tells Al Jazeera while her assistant helps a Finnish newspaper to settle into the office. “People seem to think they can buy the Greenlandic soul. It is our identity, our language, our culture – and it would look completely different if you became an American citizen, and that is not something a majority in Greenland want.”

The other Greenlandic MP, Aki-Matilda Hoegh-Dam of the Naleraq party, says it is a difficult time for Greenland’s 56,000 people.

“It has been a very turbulent time for many Greenlanders,” she tells Al Jazeera. “We have, in many ways, been isolated from the rest of the world for almost 300 years, with limited contact with major powers, especially when it comes to foreign relations. But now we feel cornered, and that is making a lot of people anxious.”