SCOTTISH trade unions have vowed solidarity with over 100,000 public-sector workers sacked by Turkey’s right-wing Erdogan regime and have pledged to raise money to support them.

University and College Union president Rob Goodfellow said that thousands of journalists, schoolteachers and lecturers had found out about their dismissal through a government website.

He said that the sacked workers had “lost their right to pay and redundancy money … lost their right to the health service, had had their passports removed so they can’t escape and were getting no welfare assistance.

“It is no surprise that suicide rates are rising,” Mr Goodfellow added.

Fellow education union EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said “the attack has fallen disproportionately on the Kurdish community,” with local schools closing, and would have an “enormous impact” on the one million refugee children in the country as well as on Turkish children.

Turkish teaching union Egitim Sen is under financial pressure, currently spending two-thirds of its income on supporting affected members.

Mr Flanagan said the situation was “not just about solidarity in spirit but solidarity in cash” and called for unions to make financial contributions to Egitem Sen to help its struggle against an “increasingly oppressive” regime.