Selahattin Demirtas, the 44-year-old leader of Turkey’s main Kurdish political movement, has been behind bars on terror-related charges for almost a year. The details of the charges remain ambiguous amid legal controversies surrounding his ongoing trial. This, however, is not the only reason why Demirtas has remained in the news.

A lawyer by profession, the co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) had always stood out on the political scene, introducing humor, sharp wit and a genial touch to the rough-and-tumble Turkish politics. Incarcerated in the northwestern province of Edirne, he continues to stand out even from prison — this time through arts and literature. Along with the occasional political statements, his messages from jail have come in the form of paintings, poems and most recently a collection of stories, reinforcing his unique image in Turkish politics.

In the run-up to the June 2015 elections in which the HDP made a landmark breakthrough into parliament, Demirtas had already given hints of his artistic talent, singing and playing the saz — a folk instrument — during a memorable interview on a leading news channel.

In December, about a month and a half after Demirtas was arrested, HDP member Sirri Sureyya Onder shared a story his leader had written in jail, adding the following message: “Along with saz-playing … Selahattin Demirtas has another little-known feature, which is story-writing.”