Pro-Kurdish politicians wearing t-shirts featuring Abdullah Ocalan gather to start a hunger strike to demand the right to visit the jailed PKK militant leader Ocalan, in Diyarbakir, Turkey, September 5, 2016. (REUTERS Photo)

ANKARA, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 11,285 teachers were suspended over alleged links with the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), Turkish Education Ministry announced on Thursday.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's remarks last Monday that all teachers having links to the PKK terrorist organization will be suspended.

Speaking in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, which has been repeatedly targeted by PKK terrorist attacks, Yildirim said an estimated 14,000 teachers in the region are somehow associated with terrorism.

Also on Thursday, Yildirim called on provincial governors to take steps against elements in eastern and southeastern Turkish municipalities "that are linked to terrorism."

At a governors' meeting in the capital Ankara, Yildirim, citing a recent statutory decree, said governors "have been fully authorized" to do what is necessary in the case of "municipalities that are linked to terrorism," according to Anadolu Agency.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.