Turkey no longer needs to join the European Union but Ankara will not be the party which abandons the accession talks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

“We see that they misunderstand the patience Turkey shows in the process of EU membership,” Erdogan said in a speech he delivered to parliament on October 1, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“I will say this clearly: We will not end the process, throw in the towel or give up. In fact, we do not need EU membership,” he added.

It’s the EU that needs Turkey, according to the president, who has been involved in a series of spats with Germany over human rights.

“If the EU is going to leap forward, the only way to do that will be by initiating true economic and cultural enlargement through Turkey’s accession,” he told lawmakers.

Erdogan also accused the EU of failing to help Turkey in its fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the plotters behind last year's attempted coup.

“We say that the PKK is a separatist organisation aiming to destroy our state and constantly engaging in terrorist actions to achieve its goal. We say that FETO is a treacherous organisation which aimed to take over the state.”

FETO refers to what the Ankara government calls the “Fetullahist Terrorist Organisation”. Turkey holds US-based self-exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers responsible for last year’s coup attempt, though Gulen denies any involvement.

Ankara applied for EU membership in 1987 and was declared an eligible candidate in 1999. Formal accession negotiations started in 2005, but talks have stalled over the past couple of years as the pace of reforms in Turkey has slowed.