By Selma Kasap

ANKARA

At least 11,285 school teachers have been suspended across Turkey over suspected links with a separatist terrorist organization, the Education Ministry said Thursday.

Although the ministry did not specify the group, the term separatist terrorist organization usually refers to the PKK.

The ministry said the number of suspended teachers would reach to 14,000 during the probe being conducted in coordination with governors’ offices across the country.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed to suspend all teachers associated with the PKK terrorist organization.

Speaking in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, which has been repeatedly hit by PKK attacks, Yildirim said some 14,000 teachers serving in the region were suspected of being linked to terrorism.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year. Since then, more than 600 security personnel have been martyred and more than 7,000 PKK terrorists killed.