Erdogan recently announced that students could elect to take Kurdish language lessons under a new educational reform package.
Our correspondent says the violence also comes as Turkey, which seeks European Union membership, has passed a range of reforms that allow Kurdish language education and broadcasting.
As part of what was described as the "democratic opening, " the Turkish state established a Kurdish-language TV channel for the first time and eased bans on Kurdish language education in schools.
His Justice and Development Party, or AKP, also made a number of overtures toward the Kurds, relaxing bans on Kurdish language education, appearing to apologize for past discriminatory policies and launching a state Kurdish-language TV station.
The launch of Turkey's first official Kurdish-language television channel in January and the government's calls for the establishment of Kurdish literature departments at state universities have raised hopes of more reforms.
Mr Obama praised the recent launch of a state-run 24-hour Kurdish-language television channel.
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Yet there is also talk of introducing optional Kurdish-language classes in government schools.
Mr Cem now says that Kurdish-language broadcasting should be allowed.
His reforms over the past year included scrapping state security courts, cementing civilian control of the army, allowing Kurdish-language teaching and broadcasting, and shaking up the police and judiciary.
Mr Bahceli is still inclined to make populist promises that would scupper the IMF's efforts to put Turkey's budget back into shape and inveighs against easing bans on Kurdish-language education and broadcasting.
To get this far, Turkey has taken such dramatic steps as abolishing the death penalty, accepting Kurdish as a language in schools, scrapping state security courts, revising the penal code and tightening civilian control over the army.
The 351 students start studying Kurdish, the native language of most, in third grade.
And many Kurdish villagers do not understand Turkish, the only language used in many warnings about bird flu.
In exchange, the Iraqi Kurds are squeezing the PKK. An Iraqi Kurdish satellite-television channel, Kurd Stat, even carries Turkish-language news broadcasts.
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The number of weeklies and monthlies published partly or fully in Kurdish has risen from two to five, and the provincial government, which used to frown on out-of-school Kurdish classes, paid for 2, 500 Kurds to learn to write in their native language last summer.
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