The officer, Hakan Acil, was on his way to Turkey, accompanied by a group of rights activists who secured his release, a senior member of the Human Rights Association, Mihdi Perincek, told AFP.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) abducted the officer in early October near a small village in the southeastern province of Sirnak, which borders Iraq and Syria.

The PKK, which has bases in the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq, has fought for self-rule in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey since 1984.