Turkey suspends 11,500 teachers over alleged links to Kurdish militants -official

ANKARA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Turkey has suspended 11,500 teachers over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), a Turkish official said on Thursday, confirming an earlier report from broadcaster CNN Turk that cited the education ministry. The Democratic Regions Party (DBP), which runs the councils and many across the region, has been dubbed by President Tayyip Erdogan as an extension of the PKK, which has fought a three-decades-old conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast. The crackdown comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of orchestrating an attempted coup in July. However earlier this year, 15,200 education ministry officials lost their jobs and 21,000 private school teachers had their licences revoked, amid a crackdown on followers of cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed for the failed 15 July coup. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim visited the mainly Kurdish southeast over the weekend and said in a speech there that an estimated 14,000 teachers had links to the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the European Union and the United States.
Turkey suspends 11,500 teachers over alleged links to separatist terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) a week before the start of school.