Turkish student denied internship over Sweden's NATO bid

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
14 Jan 23:19
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Fatma Zehra S. is a third-year undergrad student in the Department of Psychology at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul who obtained an Erasmus+ fund for a summer 2023 internship at a university of her preference.

Fatma Zehra S. (Gokhan Deniz / TRTWorld)

A Turkish student who applied for a summer internship program at Stockholm University in Sweden was rejected due to her country blocking Sweden's bid for NATO membership, TRT World reported on Saturday.

Fatma Zehra S. is a third-year undergrad student in the Department of Psychology at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul who obtained an Erasmus+ fund for a summer 2023 internship at a university of her preference.

She found interest in Professor Per Carlbring who leads a clinical psychology research group at Stockholm University and wrote to him in November last year to express her interest in being considered for a research project.

Shortly after she had sent her email, Per replied: "I would love to host you. However, since Turkey does not allow Sweden to join NATO, I have to decline. Sorry!"

Screenshot of Fatma's conversation with Professor Per Carlbring.

After receiving this response, Fatma filed a discrimination complaint report with the university on December 5, describing the professor’s response as being "based on political considerations" and "discriminatory if not completely racist".

"If he did this to me, he would do this to other students with different racial backgrounds who apply to the university," said Fatima.

“Mixing a simple citizen and student – who wishes to pursue her studies in the best conditions possible – with the political stance of the government of the country she’s from, is an infamous way of thinking and judging one’s skills and character,” she wrote in her complaint.

The head of the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, Fredrik Jonsson, told TRT World that his department receives "many inquiries from students who are interested in visiting us as research interns. We are unable to receive them all, but expect that any request is responded to in a professional manner. In this case, as soon as we learnt about this issue we acted and have handled it according to our routines.”

Fatma did receive an apology from the deputy head of the psychology department, Torun Lindholm Ojmyr, on December 6, who claimed Professor Carlbring admitted that his behaviour was inappropriate, and that “several active measures are planned at the department going forward,” including “training on equal terms and the Swedish Discrimination Act”.

But the department took no direct action to discipline his behavior, nor did Fatma receive any direct apology from the professor himself.

"At this point, I am hoping that he would send me an apology, but he has not, and I am disappointed about it."

"I think this behaviour is childish, racist, and really inappropriate. I am mentally strong, but other students who have insecurities about applying to different programmes, will not be able to recover from such an answer."

Fatma had her application accepted by a different professor in the same university, and reportedly plans to go ahead with her internship program this summer.