ISTANBUL: German Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday of her “deep concern” over the state of democracy in Turkey and voiced doubt that a plan to offer Turks visa-free travel to the EU would be implemented on time.

Merkel’s blunt comments after highly sensitive talks with Erdogan on the sidelines of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul revealed the extent of surging tensions between the EU and the Turkish strongman over human rights.

The German leader took aim at a law that critics believe is aimed at evicting pro-Kurdish lawmakers from parliament and stressed to Erdogan that a democracy needed “an independent judiciary, an independent press and a strong parliament”.

“Of course, the lifting of the immunity of one quarter of the deputies is a source of deep concern. I expressed this to the Turkish president and we discussed these questions very openly,” she said. “Not all my questions have been answered, we will have to watch developments closely.”

Turkey’s parliament on Friday adopted a highly controversial bill that would lift immunity for dozens of MPs. The opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) fears the legislation is aimed directly against its lawmakers.

Erdogan made no comment after the talks and tellingly Merkel made her remarks not beside the Turkish president but later to her domestic press at the German consulate.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2016