Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's eight-year-old Islamic-rooted government has embarked on an ambitious project to resolve the bitter war for autonomy by Kurdish rebels. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people in the last two decades, mostly in Turkey's southeast.

But the government has faced mounting demands from the Kurds and severe criticism from nationalists amid a backlash of violent attacks blamed on the rebels.

Erdogan said Friday that education in Turkey can only be held in Turkish.