ANKARA (AFP)
Turkish teachers demonstrating for better  working conditions clashed with police yesterday leaving 17  injured according to unions, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Thousands of teachers from across the country had travelled to  Ankara to take part in the unauthorised protest, called by the  Egitim-Sen union to demand an overtime review and the introduction  of regular sanitary checks.
Their “great march” had been due to culminate with a declaration  outside the education ministry, but security forces stopped 50 buses  transporting demonstrators as they entered Ankara, the agency  reported.
The declaration was then obstructed and protesters clashed with  riot police, backed up by armoured vehicles and helicopters.
Some 17 people were injured in the scuffles, two of whom were in  a serious condition, the head of the KESK public servants union,  Ismail Hakki Tombul, told Anatolia.
Security forces did not give their own figures for casualties.
The NTV news channel reported about “many arrests” but did not give a  precise number.
The demonstrators began to disperse after a final “sit-in”  outside the education ministry and will resume their protest in the  capital on Sunday morning, Anatolia quoted Egitim-Sen president  Alaattin Dincer as saying.
The 200,000-strong union narrowly escaped closure when it was  sued for having supported the introduction of teaching in native  languages including Kurdish.
The union then withdrew this aim, allowing a court to rule  against its closure in late October.