Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan clearly ruled out the possibility of public education in languages other than Turkish, including such “mother tongues” as Kurdish.

“Education in the mother tongue. There is no such thing. Our country’s official language is Turkish,” Erdoğan said, addressing the parliamentary group of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“Education in mother tongues is one of the demands the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is exploiting in its campaign of separatist terrorism,” Erdoğan said.

“The government has fulfilled its duty by granting students the right to study Kurdish as an elective course, which was introduced this school year,” he said. “Some European states have also been exploiting the issue of education in mother tongues, although Turkish is not being taught as a mother tongue in those countries,” Erdoğan said.