A policeman stands atop of a military armored vehicle after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey July 16, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey suspended nearly 2,000 teachers and school employees on Wednesday, an official from the Ministry of Education said, as part of the widening purge that has followed a failed coup in July.

More than 125,000 people have been dismissed from the police, the military, the judiciary, the civil service or the education system, and almost 40,000 arrested, for alleged connections with the coup attempt, during which at least 240 people were killed.

The official told Reuters that 1,980 teachers and school employees had been suspended pending investigation. No other information was immediately available.

Turkey says followers of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen have infiltrated state institutions and plotted to overthrow the government. On Wednesday, President Tayyip Erdogan said that the 22-year-old police officer who assassinated Russia’s ambassador in Ankara this week was also one of Gulen’s followers.

Gulen himself has condemned the coup and the assassination and denied any involvement.

Rights groups and some of Turkey’s Western allies fear that Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to crack down on dissent.

Authorities have also arrested 140 journalists and closed down 177 media outlets, although 11 were subsequently reopened. More than 2,000 schools, universities and dormitories have also been shut down.</s>More than 125,000 people have been dismissed from the police, the military, the judiciary, the civil service or the education system, and almost 40,000 arrested, for alleged connections with the coup attempt, during which at least 240 people were killed.

The official told Reuters that 1,980 teachers and school employees had been suspended pending investigation. No other information was immediately available.

Turkey says followers of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen have infiltrated state institutions and plotted to overthrow the government. On Wednesday, President Tayyip Erdogan said that the 22-year-old police officer who assassinated Russia's ambassador in Ankara this week was also one of Gulen's followers.

Gulen himself has condemned the coup and the assassination and denied any involvement.

Rights groups and some of Turkey's Western allies fear that Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to crack down on dissent.

Authorities have also arrested 140 journalists and closed down 177 media outlets, although 11 were subsequently reopened. More than 2,000 schools, universities and dormitories have also been shut down.</s>Shalrinaaz Ansari topped her school in Class XII. She was among the top students at the District Institute of Education and Training and has even cleared the Central Teacher Eligibility Test, which barely 10 per cent of those who sit for the test are able to do.

Ansari has also been a guest teacher at a Delhi government school for the last three years.

On Wednesday, she was among the hundreds of disappointed guest teachers who attended Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s address at Chhatrasal Stadium on hiking the salary of guest teachers in Delhi.

At the interaction, the Delhi government told them that it has passed the proposal to increase their salaries by up to 90 per cent. The file now awaits the approval of the Lieutenant Governor.

All of this, however, had been communicated earlier this month. The guest teachers had hoped that the proposal would have been passed, and that’s why they were called.

“I had to fight with the establishment to pass this proposal. I know I had promised that I would do something for you when I come to power.

These past two years, we have had to face a lot of problems but I have done a lot to keep the promise,” Kejriwal said.

The teachers, however, were not convinced and started to get up and leave even before an interaction with the CM began.

“I have no job security and can be replaced as soon as a permanent teacher is appointed in my place. Guest teachers don’t even get maternity leave, which is a basic right. Our salaries are abysmal. Is this the way to treat a fully-qualified teacher?” Ansari asked.

Many gathered outside the stadium and stopped traffic for at least 30 minutes, shouting slogans against Kejriwal. Soon after, the police dispersed protesters using a water cannon. Police said they used only “mild” methods.

The teachers alleged they were forced attend the event and that many had to sign a register while collecting their passes from the entry gates. “The head of my school had asked all guest teachers to be present. We knew that it would be futile but had to follow orders,” said a teacher, who later joined protesters.

 Kejriwal, however, brushed away the teachers’ disappointment at a press conference and said that those protesting were not teachers but men and women sent by the BJP and the Congress.

 “Guest teachers did not oppose me. They just wanted to know when the decision would be implemented. I told them that it was up to the L-G,” he said.

 There are over 15,000 guest teachers in Delhi. They are paid Rs 17,500-22,500 — based on the number of days they teach.</s>PESHAWAR, Pakistan: In a second-grade classroom, decorated with colourful posters of letters, numbers and animals, students were reciting English sentences using the future tense. Down the hall, kindergartners were enjoying a lunchtime party with cupcakes and funny hats.

But something was missing from this picture of studious nurturing. In many classes at the Pak-Turk International School last week, the regular teachers from Turkey were absent. They had been banned from the premises after the Pakistani government abruptly announced on November 15 that they had five days to leave the country.

Since then, the expulsion orders against about 100 Turkish teachers and their families have been challenged in provincial courts, and most have been granted temporary visa extensions.

The Peshawar High Court issued a temporary injunction on the expulsions in November and later extended it until December 13.

But despite criticism from international rights groups and Pakistani educators, all expect to be forced to leave, and some said they fear being harassed and arrested if they return to Turkey.

“We are really sad about our teachers. They give us parties. They give us love. We don’t want them to go,” said Marosh Zishan, 8, whose English class was being taught by a substitute Pakistani teacher.

Asked what the second-graders had learnt from their Turkish teachers, Malisha Shaheed, 7, stood up eagerly. “Not to fight,” she said.

The teachers at Pak-Turk International in Peshawar, and at 27 other such schools with 11,000 students across Pakistan, have not been accused of doing anything wrong.

The private schools, established in the 1990s by Turkey’s Gulenist movement, are rated among the best in Pakistan. They meet British university exam standards, and many Pakistani professionals send their children there.

But this summer, the teachers were caught up in an international controversy, stemming from a failed military coup in Turkey in July. After the uprising was quelled, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unleashed a crackdown in which thousands of academics, lawyers and political activists were arrested.

Erdogan also singled out the Gulenists as having influenced the army to rebel and denounced their leader, Fethullah Gulen, as a mastermind of the revolt. Gulen, 77, a Turkish Muslim cleric, has lived in exile in Pennsylvania for 17 years. He condemned the uprising, writing in the New York Times that his philosophy is “antithetical to armed rebellion.”

Still, Gulen loyalists had worked for years to infiltrate Turkish institutions, according to analysts in Turkey. Many in the police and judiciary used their positions to target military and political leaders, including Erdogan allies.

Erdogan’s international stature has plummeted since the crackdown, but he remains a valued ally of Pakistan. In mid-November he was welcomed here for a high-profile visit.

He addressed a session of Parliament, where he denounced the Gulenists as a “bloody terrorist group” and warned that they could also endanger Pakistan. Before arriving he requested that the teachers be expelled, and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif complied.

The Pak-Turk schools are part of Gulen’s Hizmet programme, which has educational and social welfare projects in numerous countries. Gulen’s teachings have a strong Islamic component, but Hizmet publications and members describe it as a “civil society movement” that promotes “human values” including empathy, mutual respect and community service.

Many Pakistani parents of Pak-Turk students have vocally protested the government’s move, participating in demonstrations in various cities over the past several weeks. They insist that the schools do not promote any radical religious ideas, and they praise the Turkish influence as building moral character in the young.

“My children have been going here for four years, and I have never heard anything about the Gulenists,” said Mohammad Zubair, a medical doctor and hospital official in Peshawar who said he chose Pak-Turk over several other highly ranked private schools. “They teach ethical values and build good citizens. This is completely unfair.”

Mohammad Aqeel, 24, who attended the Peshawar school and now teaches there, called the visa cancellations “a shameful event” that had compromised Pakistan’s independence and damaged its educational standards.

“There is no foreign ideology here,” he said. “I love this school. It grooms us to be good human beings as well as students.”

The Pakistani government has not fully explained its action, but government lawyers have described it as a “foreign policy matter” and noted that Pakistan has the right to not renew foreign visas.

Officials have also suggested that little harm is being done to the students, since the schools will remain open.

Critical analysts, however, said it was strictly a move to please Erdogan, who is close to Sharif and supports Pakistan in its rivalry with India.

Amnesty International condemned the expulsion order, saying Pakistan “needs more classrooms and more teachers, not a politically motivated decision to purge educators at the behest of the Turkish government.” Pakistan’s state school system is poorly funded and equipped, and millions of children work instead.

The Pak-Turk Educational Foundation immediately challenged the expulsion order in Pakistani courts, which have responded in various ways. The Islamabad High Court said the group should petition the Interior Ministry for visa extensions but noted that allowing foreigners to remain is “the sole prerogative of any state.”

Meanwhile, the teachers remain in limbo, suddenly jobless in Pakistan and fearful of what awaits them in Turkey. One faculty couple with two children, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, said they now rarely leave the rented house they share with another Turkish family.

“If people at home know I work here, it will be enough to send me straight to jail,” said the husband, 30, who has taught math in PakTurk schools for the past several years.
Turkey suspends another 1,980 teachers and school employees for alleged connections to the coup attempt.