University alcohol ban ignites reactions

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Social media users have reacted to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s comments saying that a school campus is no place to go and “get drunk.”

A school campus is no place to go and “get drunk,” the prime minister said in a belated response to criticism of the sudden cancellation of alcohol licenses at the One Love Festival at Istanbul Bilgi University earlier this month.

The prime minister said he personally called the school’s administration about the matter.

“I said, ‘What on earth is this?’ And I told them we were upset about this,” he said.“I don’t know how all these columnists can defend [selling alcohol at One Love], when there is the Constitution right there [prohibiting such sales],” he said.

Many Twitter users responded to Erdoğan’s comments, saying that a university campus should be free to decide whether to sell alcohol or not.

“It is not right that a prime minister calls a university and tells them what to do. If academia has to listen to others’ orders, who will produce thought?” Esra Arsan, a professor at Bilgi University wrote on Twitter.“We can walk into the school with headscarves and get no reactions, why there is such a reaction over the sale of alcohol?” a student, Nur Zeynep Karataş, also wrote.