I would both rather live in and visit Turkey. Istanbul is a deeply frustrating, but energizing city. Poland is pretty mediocre in every respect.
The fact that it is 16 vs 4 votes, yeah, really shows this is not a European poll. Pretty sure Turkey would win on every European forum hands down. Americans really don't have any idea on what Turkey really is, since it's so far, while it is one of the most popular vacation destinations in Europe (one of the reasons why any Turkish government would be stupid to antagonize Europe since they'd bankrupt the country by alienating European travellers). Turkey generally always was more known as a more moderate or the most moderate out of the Islam countries, and historically were also very tolerant (Ottoman Empire) since if they weren't the empire wouldn't have lasted for several centuries.
I think Turkey's adamant denial of the Armenian Genocide is a problem for many people. If German leaders, when asked about the Holocaust, said: "There were a lot of Jews who died during WWII. There were a lot of non-Jewish Germans who died during the war too. It was a terrible time.
However, Jews were never targeted for genocide by Hitler and other Nazi leaders. Next question?" Germany would certainly be much less respected than it is today.
In fairness, Poland has had some issues where free expression about its history is concerned as well--particularly the law prohibiting assigning any blame for the Holocaust to Poland (the criminal provisions of this law were subsequently repealed, though).Again, politics isn't much of a factor, though Poland hardly does much better than Turkey on that aspect too. And i'm by no means a fan of Erdogan. With regards to the denial of the Armenian genocide, many people on this forum are in denial of a genocide that is actually taking place right now, while no-one responsible for a genocide that took place more than 100 years ago is alive today... The recent displacement of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabach matters more but the international community barely did something because we're dependant on Azerbaijan on oil after we sanctioned Russia, so we're all to blame here.
I think we can all agree Poland edges it out on politics, but it's closer / more narrow than one would think. Both nations actually have a lot in common here (or had), but Erdogan's AKP is gonna lose next election too. And in all fairness, Turkey does acknowledge a genocide in Gaza is taking place right now - Poland does not. And despite all bashing on Turkey/Erdogan, he did not object to Sweden and Finland entering NATO when it mattered. I suspect that if you ask all European government leaders the question who is more reliable: Trump or Erdogan. They would all say Erdogan. Same applies for Orban's Hungary.
But again when answering the question, politics barely is a factor in part because of the gap not being that big. Sure, islamophobia will be a big reason why Turkey would not be popular in many places but other than that, it's a very cultural-rich country (and so is Poland too, make no mistake about that), unique and has a nice mediterranean climate at their coasts.
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