"President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has requested that operations be put on hold as a constructive approach to negotiations," Kalın said in an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk.

On 21 July, Turkey announced plans for a seismic survey south and east of the Greek island of Kastellorizo with the research vessel "Oruç Reis", and issued a Navtex for this purpose, prompting strong reactions both in Greece and abroad.

The Greek embassy in Ankara sent a complaint to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, and Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned Turkey with consequences. Turkey dispatched its naval forces to the region around Kastellorizo, and Turkish armed jets conducted low overflights and dogfights above the island, causing the tourists to evacuate it, and the Greek Armed Forces to be put on alert. The Turkish Ambassador to Berlin, Ali Kemal Aydın, was summoned to the German Foreign Ministry and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel held phone calls with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Turkish President Tayip Erdogan in a bid to de-escalate the situation.

According to a German newspaper, it was Merkel's last-minute intervention that prevented a crisis between Greece and Turkey. This was later confirmed by the German Defence Minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

Along with Germany, France and the United States also backed Greece, with the French President Emmanuel Macron calling for sanctions against Turkey for the violation of Greece's sovereignty, the US envoy to Athens acknowledging Kastellorizo's full rights to EEZ and Continental Shelf, and the State Department urging Turkey to halt its plans for surveys in the area around the island.

ILKHA