Turkish doctoral student in Italy deported on embassy threats

ROME / ISTANBUL

Turkish student Furkan Semih Dündar.

A Turkish doctoral student studying in Pisa has been deported from Italy after allegedly saying in emails that he wanted to blow up an embassy. The student claims that he wanted to get himself caught in order to prove that he was being followed by spies.

Italian police said on Jan. 21 that Furkan Semih Dündar, a Turkish student at the elite Scuola Normale in Pisa, was among suspects deported from the country as part of efforts to tighten security amid the scare caused by recent Islamist terrorist attacks in France, according to Italian media reports.

Dündar, a 25-year-old physics student, is accused of volunteering on Islamist websites as a suicide bomber for attacks on the Israeli, U.S. or British embassies in Rome, or on the “hated” consulates of the West in Tuscany and other parts of Italy, Italian daily Corriere Della Sera reported.

He was deported from Italy on Dec. 24, about a month after beginning his course in November.

Speaking to the Italian newspaper, Dündar gave a confusing record of the event, claiming that he has been tracked by intelligence units for years and wanted to get himself caught to prove his suspicions were true.

“They have been following me in the street and everywhere [I realized this the day I arrived], I wrote a message to the CIA that said something like, ‘Are you perhaps thinking I want to blow myself up outside of your embassy? Do you really believe I have nothing better to do than think about you day and night?’" he said.

"All I wanted was peace to study without being treated like an enemy for no reason. At first, I wanted to help the CIA because I thought they wanted to solve the problem. It was only later that I started sending provocative messages to various sites in order to get arrested and put an end to the situation. I’m happy it’s all over now,” Dündar added.