Turkey to close down 626 private schools after coup

20 July 2016, 8:34 pm

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Turkey’s state-run news agency says authorities are closing 626 private schools and other establishments following a failed coup attempt, blamed on followers of a US-based Muslim cleric.

Anadolu Agency says the decision was made Wednesday by the Education Ministry and that the schools were under investigation for “crimes against the constitutional order and the running of that order” — without saying the schools are linked to a movement led by the cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Earlier, media reports said the government, expanding its purge of suspected coup backers, has begun to revoke the licenses of 21,000 teachers at private schools.

Gulen has denied being behind the failed coup.

— AP