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

Traditionally dressed Kurdish women hold flags showing jailed PKK leader (Kurdistan Workers' Party) Abdullah Ocalan during a rally of some 30,000 Kurdish Turks against Turkish President and AKP party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Cologne, Germany September 3, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

ANKARA (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. 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. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by David Dolan)