Political prisoner Kemal Kaplan has been released after thirty years in Turkish prisons. The Kurd was arrested in 1993 at the age of 28 in the Aegean province of Izmir and sentenced to life imprisonment by a State Security Court (DGM) for separatism.

Most recently, Kaplan was in a maximum security prison in Balıkesir. On Saturday, he was released and received by family members, members of the prisoner aid association EGE-TUHAYDER and the board of the provincial association of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Kaplan said: "I'm happy to be outside the prison walls, not inside," but added that when he thinks of "the thousands of friends who are still in prison, I feel sad. That's why I can't really call myself free right now."

Kaplan, who is 58 years old and from Mardin, added: "I am convinced that the future belongs to us."