After Athens’ fierce reaction, Turkey backed down and withdrew a controversial Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), which reserved large portions of the Aegean for the remainder of the year, in order to carry out military exercises with live ammunition.
Turkey withdrew its controversial NOTAM in two steps, at first excluding an area on the island of Skyros, which in itself constituted a violation of national sovereignty.
Athens also rejected the second NOTAM, as the provocation still stood and after a few phone calls, Turkey also withdrew the second, corrective NOTAM.
The Turkish initiative appears to have even angered Ankara, which has traditionally observed a neutral stance on the bilateral relationship between Greece and Turkey.
