Kurdish parents are facing terrorism charges for demanding that their children are taught in their mother tongue.

Their plight, coupled with the arrest of more than 100 sympathisers protesting in Istanbul, has pushed the issue of mother-tongue education to the top of Turkey’s political agenda.

Kurdish is spoken by millions of Turkish children. The parents’ demand is controversial because of the 17-year guerrilla war being fought in the south-east of the country by Kurdish separatists.

Until recently Kurdish was effectively banned. However, a package of constitutional amendments aimed at bringing Turkey more into line with European Union norms was passed late last year. This allowed for Kurdish broadcasting and publishing, provided that it did not “threaten national security”.

Now Kurdish activists want this extended to allow mother-tongue education. Their campaign began in the universities and has now reached primary and high schools.

Parents have been organising petitions - and facing arrests. Last month, police in the Gaziosmanpasa district of Istanbul raided 20 homes to arrest parents who had petitioned local education authorities for first-language classes at high school. The parents now face terrorism charges.

Local teachers’ union leaders have supported the campaign, pointing out the disadvantages that Kurdish-speaking pupils face with a Turkish curriculum.

“We are not following this as a political issue, but as a pedagogical one,” said Hasan Erzincan, head of an Istanbul branch of the teachers’ union Egitim Sen. “Every human being has the right to be educated in their native tongue.”

Justice minister Hikmet Sami Turk accused the protesters of backing “terrorism” and accused them of trying to “internationalise” the issue by taking it to the European Court of Human Rights.

However, deputy prime minister Mesut Yilmaz, who is also in charge of Turkey’s EU bid, urged the police to behave “moderately”.