ANKARA, Jan 20 (AFP) Police in Istanbul rounded up around 100 people who were planning to hold a demonstration on Sunday to have the Kurdish language taught in highschools, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Acting on a tip-off that a demonstration was going to be held in front of a mosque in the Eminonu district on the city's European side, dozens of officers deployed in the area, backed up with police dogs and armoured vehicles, the report said.

Police arrested some 20 people who had gathered in the area, while some 80 other people suspected of planning to attend the protest were taken into custody at police check-points in other parts of the city, it added.

The protest comes as part of a recent campaign to have Kurdish language education introduced in universities and schools -- something which is currently banned under Turkey's constitution.

The campaign initially started in Istanbul universities in November where hundreds of Kurdish students signed petitions to have Kurdish taught, and then spread to universities across the country.

It has recently spilled to highschools, where parents have submitted similar petitions to the education ministry.

Turkish authorities view the campaign as a sign of Kurdish separatism and claim that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which waged a 15-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey, was behind the movement.

According to Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), more than 5,000 people -- among them university students, parents and HADEP members -- have been detained in a police crackdown on campaigners.

The Kurdish language has been legally banned in Turkey for a long time, even though authorities have long tolerated a series of magazines and music cassettes in Kurdish.

Last year, the Turkish parliament approved a constitutional amendment which paves the way for the country's Kurds to broadcast and publish material in their mother tongue.

But education in the Kurdish language is still ruled out over fears that such a move could fan Kurdish separatism and lead to the break-up of Turkey.