Renewed frictions between Europe and Turkey are once again laying bare the underlying fragility of the so-called “Western bloc”. Recent remarks by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, equating Turkey with Russia and China, triggered diplomatic unease and sharp reactions in Ankara. European actors increasingly perceive Turkey not as a partner, but rather as a problematic, quasi-adversarial force on the continent’s periphery.

At the same time, disputes over Cyprus and maritime boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean persist, further aggravating relations. European policymakers have hardened their tone toward Ankara, while Turkey’s leadership has responded in kind. As one analysis bluntly puts it, Europe may be in the process of turning Turkey into a “zombie rival,” neither fully integrated nor openly antagonistic, but perpetually at odds with EU interests.

Yet the timing of this diplomatic deterioration is particularly striking or rather ironic in a way: it coincides with renewed discussions about Europe’s energy vulnerability and the need to diversify supply routes away from chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, amid the disastrous Israeli-American war with Iran. The International Energy Agency in any case has recently called for reviving the Iraq-Turkey pipeline as a strategic corridor that could bypass Hormuz and thereby enhance Europe’s energy security.

In other words, while Brussels questions Ankara’s geopolitical alignment, it........

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