Swedish professor punishes Turkish student for Sweden’s NATO bid
A Turkish psychology student applying for an internship at Stockholm University received a shocking response from one of its professors.
A professor at Stockholm University prevented a Turkish student from participating in an internship program, claiming he cannot host her because Turkey has blocked Sweden’s entry into NATO.
TRT World was given access to the email sent by Professor Per Carlbring, who leads a research group in clinical psychology at the university.
Fatma Zehra S., a third-year undergraduate studying at the Department of Psychology at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul, was accepted by an Erasmus+ fund for an internship in the summer of 2023 at a university of her choice.
One of the internships she applied for was at Stockholm University in Sweden. In an email she sent on November 23, 2022, Fatma described her interest in being considered for a research project led by Professor Carlbring.
A few hours later, Carlbring replied: “I would like to receive you. But since Turkey does not allow Sweden to join NATO, I have to say no. Sorry!”
“After receiving this answer, I was simply shocked,” Fatma says TRT World. “It took me a long time to process that.”
Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO in May, abandoning decades of military non-alignment, a decision spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
But Türkiye – a NATO member for over 70 years – expressed objections, saying the two countries have tolerated and supported terrorist groups.
In June 2022, Türkiye and the two Nordic countries signed a memorandum at a NATO summit to address Ankara’s security concerns, paving the way for their eventual membership in the alliance. Seven months have passed since the signing of the memorandum and Sweden has not yet fulfilled the agreed recommendations.
Fredrik Jonsson, Head of the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, explains TRT World in a statement that: “We receive many inquiries from students interested in visiting us as research interns. We cannot accommodate everyone, but expect every inquiry to be answered in a professional manner. In this case, as soon as we became aware of this issue, we acted and have dealt with it according to our procedures.”
Professor Carlbring did not answer TRT World’s request for comment.
Fatma believed that her experience could only be the “tip of the iceberg” and was serious enough to register a formal complaint. “If he did this to me, he would do this to other students of different racial backgrounds applying to the university,” she says.
She went on to file a discrimination complaint with the university on December 5, describing the professor’s response as “based on political considerations” and “discriminatory if not downright racist.”
“Mixing a simple citizen and student – who wants to continue her studies under the best possible conditions – with the political stance of the government of the country she comes from, is a notorious way of thinking and judging her competence and character,” she wrote in her complaint .
She received a reply from the deputy head of psychology, Torun Lindholm Ojmyr, on December 6 with an apology for the incident. Ojmyr claimed that Professor Carlbring admitted that his behavior was inappropriate and wrong, and that “several active measures are planned at the department going forward”, including “education on equal terms and the discrimination law”.
However, Fatma believes that these statements do not go far. “What I wanted them to do is take active action about his behavior,” she said. Discrimination training is good, but how can it be measured, she wondered, questioning whether it is enough to prevent incidents like this from happening again in the future.
Nor has she received a formal apology from the professor directly. “At this point I was hoping he would send me an apology, but he hasn’t, and I’m disappointed about that.”
“I find this behavior childish, racist, and really inappropriate. I’m mentally strong, but other students who have insecurities about applying to different programs won’t be able to recover from such a response.”
Despite the negative experience, Fatma says her application was approved by another professor in the psychology department at the same university, and she plans to continue her internship this summer.
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Relations between Turkey and Sweden continue to be tense. New evidence of PKK and YPG terrorist supporters organizing in the heart of the Swedish capital Stockholm emerged on January 12. Crowds of terror supporters gathered outside the historic city hall and raised anti-Türkiye slogans. They also hung a picture of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, shouting racial slurs and threatening Türkiye with violence.
As the Swedish government has failed to crack down on PKK/YPG shelters and allowed their supporters to freely organize and carry out many anti-Türkiye and pro-terrorism demonstrations in the country, Ankara refuses to give in to such provocations and continues to on preventing a terrorist-friendly country from joining NATO.
In the midst of this toxic environment, Turkish citizens in Sweden feel vulnerable to PKK/YPG attacks. According to Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden Hakki Emre Yunt, the Turkish embassy has been attacked several times in Stockholm and with each passing day the PKK/YPG supporters are emboldened to unleash more violence against Turkish assets and citizens living in the country.
The case of Fatma Zehra S is another addition to the increasing intolerance that Sweden has shown against Turkey.
Source: TRT World