Balkans | Discrimination from a Swedish professor to a Turkish student under the pretext of “NATO”

The Swedish professor’s refusal to train the Turkish student, claiming that “Turkey blocked Sweden’s entry into NATO,” appeared in the email he sent.

According to TRT World news, Fatma Zahra S., a third-year student in the Department of Psychology at Istanbul Ibn Khaldun University, was entitled to obtain an internship at a school in Europe in the summer of 2023, within the scope of the European Union (EU) Erasmus+ grant program.

On November 23, 2022, the student emailed the academician that he wanted to take part in the research project run by Prof. Per Karlbring at Stockholm University.

In his training application, Carlbring said, “Dear Fatima, I would like to host you, but I must decline your application because Turkey is preventing Sweden from joining NATO. Sorry.” answered in the form.

I was shocked after receiving this answer.

Speaking to TRT World on the subject, Fatimah stated that what she went through may be “the tip of the iceberg” and that other students who have applied to the university may have received a similar response, “I was shocked after I got this answer. It took me a long time to come to terms with that.” “. He said.

Emphasizing that she has not yet received an official apology from Professor Per Karlbring and that these measures are insufficient, Fatima said: “At this point, I hope he will send me an apology, but he has not, and I am disappointed about that. I think this behavior is childish, racist and really inappropriate.” “. Make an evaluation.

Fatima said that despite her negative experience, her application was accepted by a different professor in the psychology department at the same university and she plans to continue her training this summer.

File a discrimination complaint at the university.

The student, who filed a discrimination complaint with the aforementioned university on December 5, stated in the report that the professor’s response was “based on political considerations” and “showed a discriminatory attitude and was even quite racist.”

Torun Lindholm Ojmyr, Vice Chair of the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, sent Fatima a letter of apology for the incident.

Ögmeer stated in the letter that he acknowledged that Professor Carlbring’s conduct was inappropriate and wrong, and that “several effective measures are planned in the department moving forward”, including “equal education and Swedish discrimination law”.

Speaking about the event, Fredrik Johnson, Chair of the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, said, “We receive many requests from students who want to work with us as research interns. We cannot accept all of these requests, but we hope that any request will be answered in a professional manner. In this case, as soon as we became aware of this issue, we took action and dealt with it according to our routine.” He said.

Professor Carlbring left the questions unanswered.