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In an undiplomatic outburst the controversial leader said he would find it comforting if Brussels simply cancelled the accession process and boasted that his country did not need the EU to prosper.

The firebrand president has upped his attacks on eurocrats in recent months, safe in the knowledge that they can not hit back for fear of him axing a critical deal preventing migration into Greece.

Last summer Ankara agreed to begin taking back all economic migrants crossing the Aegean into Europe in return for billions of pounds in aid cash and a commitment to re-energise talks on its EU membership.

But since then there has been a failed coup, with president Erdogan brutally cracking down on the police, judiciary, army and the media who he accuses of trying to create a parallel state for exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The EU has been alarmed by his increasingly despotic actions, and has said that a threat to reintroduce the death penalty would be the final straw for the accession talks, but eurocrats have been powerless to act.

That is because the bloc is hugely dependent on the migration deal with Turkey, which has cut arrivals in Greece by 98 per cent, at a time when Italy is under unprecedented pressure due to migration from Libya.

And speaking today president Erdogan showed little sign of worry that his harsh words about Brussels would land him in trouble, taking the opportunity to launch a scathing broadside at the project.

He told the BBC: If the EU, bluntly says, we will not be able to accept Turkey into the EU' this will be comforting for us. The European Union is not indispensable for us. We are relaxed."

In a monumental snub to the bloc he said the majority of Turks do not want the EU anymore and said his country was able to stand on its own two feet without Brussels.

He blasted eurocrats for being insincere in their approach to Ankara, but said he would not suspend accession talks himself, adding: "Despite all this we will continue being sincere with the EU for a little more time.

REUTERS

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Riot police use rubber pellets to disperse LGBT rights activists as they try to gather for a pride parade in central Istanbul

Last week MEPs sitting in the European Parliament voted to formally suspend membership talks with Turkey, although their decision is not binding on the member states.

In a resolution they called on EU leaders to formally suspend the accession negotiations with Turkey without delay if the constitutional reform package is implemented unchanged.

President Erdogan held a referendum earlier this year, which he won, abolishing the office of prime minister and granting him sweeping new dictator style powers.

See the article here:
'Wasting our time!' Turkish leader Erdogan says people don't want to join the EU anymore - Express.co.uk