His position there was insecure, however, and his first priority was to contact the Christian powers of the region and arrange a truce with them, especially in view of the necessity to one day return to Anatolia and contend with his brothers and other rivals (cf. Ottoman Interregnum).[3][4] Already on 22 September, the Venetian Senate was discussing the matter, and hoped to gain control over Gallipoli. The Venetians also contacted the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, who at the time was in Paris on a grand journey seeking help in the West, urging him to return home, since Manuel's nephew and regent, John VII Palaiologos, was known to sympathize with Venice's maritime and commercial rivals, the Republic of Genoa.[5]