French journalist Loup Bureau who was detained for 51 days in Turkey on charges of aiding a terror group has returned to France, saying his sudden release came as a surprise.
Bureau, a journalism student who has worked with the television channels TV5 and Arte and the website Slate, was arrested in southeastern Turkey on July 26 while reporting on Kurds living near the Iraqi border.
He was freed Friday, the day after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara.
After touching ground in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport, he told journalists "it was a bit of a surprise, as there were no signs announcing my release."
Bureau said he was "well treated" while in prison. He says "today I am exhausted but extremely happy to be here."
He was charged with membership of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurd militant after he was found with photos that showed him with members of the group.
Ankara considers the YPG to be the Syrian affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state for more than three decades.
