Turkey suspends more than 11,000 teachers suspected of having ties to terrorist group

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(Image credit: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

At least 11,000 teachers in Turkey suspected of having links to an unnamed "separatist terrorist organization" have been suspended, state-run news service Anadolu reported Thursday.

Turkey's Education Ministry says up to 14,000 teachers could ultimately be suspended. A senior Turkish official told CNN the "separatist terrorist organization" is the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish state on and off for almost three decades. There are more than 850,000 teachers in the country, and the official said the suspensions are temporary, pending formal investigations, and the teachers are being paid.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.