I don’t think any European would consider them “European” tbh, but we need allies and we have shared interests right now. And their food is great!

Virtually no one here likes Erdogan whatsoever, but our interests in relation to Ukraine and weakening USA/Russia aligns in this particular case. Turkey is a large country that actually borders the EU and has the largest non-European diaspora living here; keeping somwhat cood relations makes sense, even if I’d never want to see them join the Union and know we can never fully trust them.

As we lost our biggest ally, trading with another large country with a significant military makes perfect sense. Besides, Turkish food is actually great, especially compared to murican trash