The COVID-19 outbreak had massive impacts in many areas, including education, all over the world. This pandemic forced education systems to make an emergency shift to remote teaching. The Turkish education system was affected by the pandemic, and all schools were forced to shut down in March 2020. Approximately 18 million students in Türkiye continued their education through distance teaching. Distance education, as a response to this compulsory transition, was carried out through the Education Informatics Network (EBA) and Turkish Radio and Television Corporation Educational Information Network (TRT EBA TV) channels. However, it was not known whether teachers were ready for this compulsory transition and online teaching process. This study aimed to investigate science teachers' perceptions of the compulsory distance education process and the difficulties they encountered during online teaching. Four science teachers working in a private school during the pandemic voluntarily participated in the study. A semistructured interview was used for data collection. Standard qualitative analysis methods were used. The results revealed the participant teachers were not fully ready for this compulsory transition. They frequently encountered internet access problems, parent/teacher communication issues, problems with the delivery platform, and outdated hardware technologies. Teachers proposed effective professional development programs for developing their capabilities to use online education platforms more effectively.