I am in love with Italy, it is unique, it lives in my heart. It is the most beautiful country in the world… after Turkey!
“One day, I’ll go to Italy”, these are the words of a 10-year-old Özgür after Italy won the 2006 football World Cup. At that moment Italy entered both his mind and his heart. Özgür comes from Marmaris, a tourist town in the south-western Turkey where he lived until the age of 14, when he moved with his family to Izmir. There, while his father started building engines for both yachts and boats going back and forth from Marmaris, Özgür started his vocational high school, which was a technical school on wood technology to build ships. At first, in Kocaeli, he wanted to deepen his knowledge in the field by choosing a technical university but he later realised that this was not his path.
In the university campus of Manisa he began his bachelor’s degree in “Economics”. It was a tough period, he went from working with wood to studying mathematics, statistics, economics and English, which he had never studied before. It was so hard that he never thought he would continue his studies. Moreover, it is hard to believe when you meet Özgür in person, but he used to be very shy and not a fan of the social dynamics of the campus. He did not take the initiative to talk to the professors and ask questions, partly because, according to the Turkish cultural norms, it is not easy to talk to people of a higher rank or to the elderly. Everything changed in his last two years of undergraduate degree when he started working in the campus cafeteria and became part of the academic staff. The daily interaction with both professors and students made him more social and his relationship with professors became very natural.
“The job changed me totally, before I was an idle student, then I started socializing more. It was helpful on the economic and social side”.
He was encouraged by the teaching staff to continue his education and, in particular, to explore the world of machine learning. However, in March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic determined the closure of the campus and Özgür decided to return to Marmaris. If on one side he lived in nature and fortunately did not have to experience the stress of quarantines, on the other he was unable to find a job. At that point, a new door opened in front of him: to continue studying. He started an online master in “Economic Statistics” with a particular focus on machine learning and finance and, as soon as he had the chance, he applied for an Erasmus period in Italy, the only destination he could think of.
He learned a lot about machine learning, its applications and computers during his two Erasmus experiences at the Department of Computer Science of Turin in 2022 and of Verona in 2023. His love for Italy became concrete and after graduating in Turkey, he immediately applied for a PhD. In November 2023 he was back in Turin for his PhD in “Machine Learning for the Social Good”.
Right now, Turkish students’ opportunity to study abroad is affected by the high rejection rate of Schengen visa applications by the EU countries. Some of them do not even offer enough appointment slots and Italy is one of them. As a PhD student, he easily obtained his visa thanks to the invitation letter from the university, his scholarship and his university insurance but some of his friends waited much longer. It took him 8 months to get an appointment to have his fingerprints taken, which is essential to obtain his residence permit. After more than 1 year going around the city as a ping-pong ball looking for answers and with all his documents with him, he is still struggling to get an Italian bank account.
“The biggest problem in Italy is bureaucracy. I still don’t have a bank account, and it is too strange as I’m not doing anything illegal. I’m a PhD student, I work for the university, the money I receive is public. This is a real problem politicians and banks need to think about”.
In Turkey things are much easier, all the offices are in the same campus and there is always someone who explains what to do. This is not the case in Italy, which is strange to him as international doctoral students make up only 10% of the total. Emails, modules are in Italian, and he has not yet received canteen facilitation, and he cannot afford to pay the full price for each meal.
“It looks like being in a tunnel without any lights. You try to do something and go somewhere, and everything looks dark. At a point you give up because you don’t want to lose your energy”
All the support he needed came from his work team. His professors, colleagues and friends have always helped him, and he is very happy to have them all on his Italian journey. But what is his PhD about?
His research project focuses on using machine learning techniques to detect and monitor deforestation rates in Ivory Coast, largely a result of cocoa plantations for export purposes. They collect images from both the European and Japanese Space Agencies, which are then confronted with machine learning tools such as U-Net, useful for their segmentation. They focus also on how to improve the resolution of the images and avoid potential challenges such as clouds and bad weather with the final goal to create a model easily accessible to all. Because of his background and personal interests, he also wants to study the social, political and economic impact of deforestation on people’s daily lives as forests are one of the main sources of employment in the country and high rates of deforestation can cause a domino effect.
He feels that he is learning a lot in Italy and that he is lucky to be able to benefit from European cooperation in the exchange of information. He visited Italy from North to South and he loved it all, so much so that he now wants to finish his PhD, and he sees himself here for at least another 10 years before going back to Turkey. He is trying to understand the cultural and social differences with Turkey and he would like his family, especially his brother, to visit everything he has seen. The Italian hospitality and willingness to help are similar to the Turkish habits and he personally experienced them. It is still strange to see people entering the house wearing shoes, but there were moments with his friends that he thought “I’m home actually”.
“We both belong to Mediterranean culture. In Italy I met very good people. I have more Italian friends than Turks”.
It is difficult sometimes to find authentic Turkish restaurants and places, but that could be a good thing. He believes that an essential part of living in another country is adaptation. He is doing his best to learn Italian and being a history lover, he is studying the country’s politics and history, especially as Italy has been a Republic for almost 80 years. He feels the complicated feeling of being a guest here and therefore the more he knows about the culture and the lifestyle of the country, the more he will be accepted.
Indeed, he also thinks that there is no better way to start the day than a delicious Turkish breakfast. He misses the “simit”, a kind of salty donut with sesame seeds, and although he would like to bring many delicious Italian dishes to Turkey, he cannot wait to eat the Turkish ones, a different one every day, every time he goes back there.