‘They want our youth to be alcoholics,’ PM says after festival ban

ISTANBUL

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A school campus is no place to go and "get drunk,” the prime minister has said in a belated response to criticism over the sudden cancellation of alcohol licenses at the One Love Festival at Istanbul Bilgi University earlier this month.
 
“They want all our youth to be alcoholics," Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, adding that he "didn't know until then" that the restaurants and other eateries on the university’s campus in Eyüp already had proper licenses to sell alcohol.
 
“For God's sake, how can this happen? Can anyone allow alcohol to be sold on a school campus? Will the student go there to get drunk on alcohol or find knowledge?" Erdoğan asked.
 
"They can go and drink in appropriate places outside of school," Erdoğan said. "It's not like we are shutting down bars."
 
The prime minister said he personally called the school's administration over the matter.
 
"I said, ‘What on earth is this?’ And I told them we were upset over 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.