Turkey’s Education Ministry announced on Friday that 3,692 staff members who were recently suspended as part of an ongoing crackdown on the faith-based Gülen movement have been returned to their jobs.
The government expelled or suspended thousands of ministry personnel, mostly teachers, with government decrees that have the force of law due to a state of emergency in the country which went into effect in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt on July 15.
According to a statement from Mehmet Balık, the head of teachers union Eğitim-İş, in October, the number of teachers who have been suspended since the failed military coup attempt had reached 70,000.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the coup attempt.
More than 115,000 people who are thought to be linked to the Gülen movement have been purged from state bodies since then.
Hundreds of Gülen-linked schools across the country have been closed down and the licenses of teachers working at these schools have been revoked.