Five minors aged between 15 and 18 were freed in the southeastern province of Mardin, while two were released in Mersin in the south and an unspecified number in nearby Adana after the law took effect Sunday, the report said.

Hundreds of minors, some as young as 12, have landed in prison in recent years, sparking a nationwide outcry and accusations that Ankara is not truly committed to ending the bloody conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

Passed by parliament last week, the legislation effectively provides an amnesty for children currently in prison and makes it much harder for future offenders to be jailed, Kurdish parliament member Bengi Yildiz explained.

"About 190 children currently in jail are expected to walk free... Also thousands others who remain on trial will benefit from the law," he told AFP.

Stone-throwing children have become a fixture at Kurdish demonstrations, which routinely involve shows of support for the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Ankara over its violent 26-year campaign for self-rule in the southeast.

Hundreds of minors have been prosecuted in adult courts under Turkey's tough anti-terror law, which allows judges to consider pro-PKK protests as terrorist propaganda and punish demonstrators with heavy jail terms.

The new law says minors convicted of taking part in unauthorised protests and of related anti-terror charges will be the subject of rehabilitation programmes and other corrective measures instead of jail terms.

Repeated offenders and those who carry guns, knives or explosives at demonstrations would be exempt from the arrangement.

Keen to boost its bid to join the EU, Turkey has notably improved its human rights record, but remains under criticism on a range of issues, notably restrictions on civil society and ill-treatment by the security forces.

Ankara has pledged to expand Kurdish freedoms despite a dramatic escalation in deadly PKK attacks over the past two months.