TEACHERS’ unions were set to agree further action on Wednesday, following the suspension of a Turkish Cypriot teacher for criticising Turkey.

Last week the unions staged a one-day strike after six of their leaders were arrested and beaten for demonstrating against the teacher’s suspension.

Nilgun Orlon, a secondary school history teacher from the Turkish side of the island’s divided capital, Nicosia, was suspended following the publication of an article written by her in the left-wing newspaper Avrupa (Europe).

In it she referred to Turkey’s military intervention in Cyprus in 1974, following a Greek-backed coup, as an “invasion” after which Turkish Cypriots “lost our freedom”. The breakaway state of Northern Cyprus is not recognised by any country except Turkey, which maintains control of a third of the island through the presence of 35,000 Turkish troops.

Six members of the union executive were arrested at the demo, triggering a walk-out by some 2,000 members of high school teachers’ union KTOEOS and primary teachers’ union KTOS. Some 300 of these teachers marched on the Turkish Cypriot parliament building, education ministry and police headquarters - where the union leaders were being held.

“We were beaten and put in isolation cells,” KTOEOS general secretary Ahmet Barcin, one of the six arrested union chiefs, told The TES. He and another more badly beaten teacher, Adnan Eraslan from Sehit Turgut middle school, have now filed charges against three police officers for assault.

After opposition deputies walked out of parliament to join the demo, the union chiefs were released. But they still face charges of trespassing on school property and inciting other teachers to leave work.