TURKISH-GREEK AEGEAN TENSION ABATES Turkey"s standoff with Greece over Aegean oil rights appeared at an end after the government said it had been assured Athens would not start prospecting in disputed waters. A Foreign Ministry statement last night hinted Turkey was claiming victory. A Greek-based international consortium, North Aegean Petroleum Co., Had given up plans to start searching for oil in international waters east of Thasos island, it said. "In the same way it has been understood that Greece will also not undertake oil activities outside its territorial waters," the statement added. An Ankara Radio report monitored in London said Foreign Minister Vahit Halefolu had called on Greece to engage in dialogue over the dispute. It was impossible to resolve the dispute by crises, he was quoted as saying. "We call on Greece to come and engage in a dialogue with us - let us find a solution as two neighbours and allies should," he said. The radio said Halefoglu had briefed the leaders of a number of the country"s political parties on the latest developments. Turkey sent the survey ship Sismik 1 into the Aegean yesterday, flanked by warships, to press its case but having earlier said it would go into disputed waters, declared the vessel would stay in Turkish areas. Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, in London on his way home after heart surgery in the United States, is expected to receive an ecstatic welcome from thousands of Turks when he returns today. He was in defiant mood last night, telling Turkish radio: "We can never accept that Greece should confine us to the Anatolian continent. If there are riches under the sea, they are for mankind." Despite the end of the crisis, Turkish officials acknowledged that the underlying dispute over delimiting the continental shelf in the Aegean remained unsolved. Turkey alleged that the consortium"s plans would have infringed the 1976 Berne agreement between the two countries, which called for a moratorium on any activities until the delimitation was agreed. Greece earlier this month declared it considers the accord inoperative.