Italo-Turkish War

The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War

Italo-Turkish War
(Turkish: Trablusgarp Savaşı, "Tripolitanian War",
Italian: Guerra di Libia, "War of Libya") was Part of the Scramble for Africa
fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the
Ottoman Empire from September 29, 1911, to
October 18, 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy
captured the Ottoman Tripolitania Vilayet, of
which the main sub-provinces were Fezzan,
Cyrenaica, and Tripoli itself. These territories
became the colonies of Italian Tripolitania and
Cyrenaica, which would later merge into Italian
Libya.

During the conflict, Italian forces also occupied

the Dodecanese islands in the Aegean Sea. Italy
agreed to return the Dodecanese to the Ottoman
Empire in the Treaty of Ouchy[9] in 1912.
However, the vagueness of the text, combined
with subsequent adverse events unfavourable to
the Ottoman Empire (the outbreak of the Balkan Clockwise from top left: Battery of Italian 149/23
Wars and World War I), allowed a provisional cannons; Mustafa Kemal with an Ottoman officer
Italian administration of the islands, and Turkey and Libyan mujahideen; Italian troops landing in
eventually renounced all claims on these islands in Tripoli; an Italian Blériot aircraft; Ottoman gunboat
Article 15 of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.[10] Bafra sinking at Al Qunfudhah; Ottoman prisoners in
Rhodes.
Although minor, the war was a precursor of the
First World War as it sparked nationalism in the Date 29 September 1911 – 18 October
Balkan states. Seeing how easily the Italians had 1912
defeated the weakened Ottomans, the members of (1 year, 2 weeks and 5 days)
the Balkan League attacked the Ottoman Empire
Location Ottoman Tripolitania (Ottoman Libya),
starting the First Balkan War before the war with
Aegean Sea, Eastern Mediterranean,
Italy had ended.[11]
Red Sea
The Italo-Turkish War saw numerous Result Italian victory
technological changes, most notably the use of
airplanes in combat. On October 23, 1911, an Annexation of Tripolitania,
Italian pilot, Capitano Carlo Piazza, flew over Cyrenaica and the Dodecanese
Turkish lines on the world's first aerial Islands
reconnaissance mission,[12] and on November 1, Start of the First Balkan War
the first ever aerial bomb was dropped by
Start of the Libyan resistance
Sottotenente Giulio Gavotti, on Turkish troops in
Libya, from an early model of Etrich Taube movement
aircraft.[13] The Turks, lacking anti-aircraft Territorial Italy gains Tripolitania, Cyrenaica,
weapons, were the first to shoot down an airplane changes Fezzan, and the Dodecanese islands
by rifle fire.[14] Another use of new technology
was a network of wireless telegraphy stations Belligerents
established soon after the initial landings.[15] Italy
Guglielmo Marconi himself came to Libya to Asir[1] Ottoman Empire
conduct experiments with the Italian Corps of
Engineers. Ottoman Libya
Senussi Order

Commanders and leaders

Contents Carlo Caneva
Background Augusto Aubry İsmail Enver Bey
Mustafa Kemal
Military campaign Bey (WIA)[2]
Opening maneuver Osman Fuad
Italian troops landing in Libya
Trench phase Ahmed Sharif as-
Naval warfare Senussi
Irregular war and atrocities Omar Mukhtar

Treaty of Ouchy Strength

Aftermath Initial:[4]
Mobilisation 1911:[3] ~8,000 regular Turkish
Europe, Balkans and First World War
(September- troops
Fate of Dodecanese Islands December)
Literature ~20,000 local irregular
89,000 troops
troops
See also 14,600 quadrupeds
2,550 wagons Final:[4]
Notes 132 field guns ~40,000 Turks and
Further reading 66 mountain guns Libyans
In other languages 28 siege guns
External links Exigencies 1912:[3]
4 battalions Alpini, 7
battalions Ascari and 1
Background squadron Meharisti

The claims of Italy over Libya dated back to the Casualties and losses
Ottoman Empire's defeat by Russia in the war of 1,432 Killed in action[5] 8,189 Killed in action[7]
1877–1878 and subsequent discussions after the 1,948 died of disease[5][6] 10,000 killed in reprisals
Congress of Berlin in 1878, in which France and 4,250 wounded[6] & executions[8]
the United Kingdom had agreed to the French
occupation of Tunisia and British control over Cyprus respectively, which were both parts of the declining
Ottoman Empire. When Italian diplomats hinted about possible opposition by their government, the French
replied that Tripoli would have been a counterpart for Italy, which made a secret agreement with the British
government in February 1887 via a diplomatic exchange of notes.[16] The agreement stipulated that Italy
would support British control in Egypt, and that Britain would likewise support Italian influence in
Libya.[17] In 1902, Italy and France had signed a secret treaty, which accorded freedom of intervention in
Tripolitania and Morocco.[18] The agreement, negotiated by Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Prinetti and
French Ambassador Camille Barrère, ended the historic rivalry between both nations for control of North
Africa. The same year, the British government promised Italy that "any alteration in the status of Libya
would be in conformity with Italian interests". Those measures were intended to loosen Italian commitment
to the Triple Alliance and thereby weaken Germany, which France and Britain viewed as their main rival in
Europe. Following the Anglo-Russian Convention and the establishment of the Triple Entente, Tsar
Nicholas II and King Victor Emmanuel III made the 1909 Racconigi Bargain in which Russia
acknowledged Italy's interest in Tripoli and Cyrenaica in return for Italian support for Russian control of the
Bosphorus.[19] However, the Italian government did little to realise that opportunity and so knowledge of
the Libyan territory and resources remained scarce in the following years. The removal of diplomatic
obstacles coincided with increasing colonial fervor. In 1908, the Italian Colonial Office was upgraded to a
Central Directorate of Colonial Affairs. The nationalist Enrico Corradini led the public call for action in
Libya and, joined by the nationalist newspaper L'Idea Nazionale in 1911, demanded an invasion.[20] The
Italian press began a large-scale lobbying campaign for an invasion of Libya in late March 1911. It was
fancifully depicted as rich in minerals and well-watered, defended by only 4,000 Ottoman troops. Also, its
population was described as hostile to the Ottomans and friendly to the Italians, and they predicted that the
future invasion would be little more than a "military walk".[11]

The Italian government remained committed into 1911 to the

maintenance of the Ottoman Empire, which was a close friend of
its German ally. Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti rejected
nationalist calls for conflict over Ottoman Albania, which was seen
as a possible colonial project, as late as the summer of 1911.

However, the Agadir Crisis in which French military action in

Italian Prime Minister Giovanni
Giolitti, 1905
Morocco in April 1911 would lead to the establishment of a
French protectorate, changed the political calculations. The Italian
leadership then decided that it could safely accede to public
demands for a colonial project. The Triple Entente powers were
highly supportive. British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey stated to
the Italian ambassador on 28 July that he would support Italy, not
the Ottomans. On 19 September, Grey instructed Permanent
Under-Secretary of State Sir Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock
that Britain and France should not interfere with Italy's designs on
Libya. Meanwhile, the Russian government urged Italy to act in a
"prompt and resolute manner".[21]

In contrast to its engagement with the Entente powers, Italy largely

ignored its military allies in the Triple Alliance. Giolitti and Foreign Minister Antonino Paternò Castello
agreed on 14 September to launch a military campaign "before the Austrian and German governments
[were aware] of it". Germany was then actively attempting to mediate between Rome and Constantinople,
and Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal repeatedly warned Italy that military
action in Libya would threaten the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and create a crisis in the Eastern
Question, which would destabilise the Balkan Peninsula and the European balance of power. Italy also
foresaw that result since Paternò Castello, in a July report to the king and Giolitti, laid out the reasons for
and against a military action in Libya, and he raised the concern that the Balkan revolt, which would likely
follow an Italian attack on Libya, might force Austria-Hungary to take military action in Balkan areas
claimed by Italy.[22]

The Italian Socialist Party had strong influence over public opinion, but it was in opposition and also
divided on the issue. It acted ineffectively against a military intervention. The future Italian fascist leader
Benito Mussolini, who was then still a left-wing Socialist, took a prominent antiwar position. A similar
opposition was expressed in Parliament by Gaetano Salvemini and Leone Caetani.

An ultimatum was presented to the Ottoman government, led by the Committee of Union and Progress
(CUP), on the night of 26–27 September 1911. Through Austro-Hungarian intermediation, the Ottomans
replied with the proposal of transferring control of Libya without war and maintaining a formal Ottoman
suzerainty. That suggestion was comparable to the situation in Egypt, which was under formal Ottoman
suzerainty but was under de facto control by the British. Giolitti refused, and war was declared on
September 29, 1911.
Military campaign

Opening maneuver

Despite the time that it had to prepare the invasion, the Royal
Italian Army (Regio Esercito) was largely unprepared when the
war broke out. The Italian fleet appeared off Tripoli in the evening
of September 28 but began bombarding the port only on October
3. The city was conquered by 1,500 sailors, much to the
enthusiasm of the interventionist minority in Italy. Another
proposal for a diplomatic settlement was rejected by the Italians
and so the Ottomans decided to defend the province.[24]

In 29th of September 1911 Italy has published the declaration of

their direct interest towards Libya. Without a proper response, the
Italian forces landed on the shores of Libya in 4th of October
1911. A considerable number of Italians were living within the
Ottoman Empire, mostly inhabiting Istanbul, Izmir and
Thessaloniki , dealing with trade and industry. The sudden
declaration of war shocked both the Italian community living in the
Empire as well as the Ottoman government. Depending on the
mutual friendly relations, the Ottoman Government had replaced Italian dirigibles bomb Turkish
their Libyan battalions to Yemen in order to suppress the local positions on Libyan territory. The
Italo-Turkish War was the first in
rebellions and left only the military police in Libya.[25]
history to feature aerial bombardment
Therefore, the Ottomans did not have a full army in Tripolitania. by airplanes and airships.[23]
Many of the Ottoman officers had to travel there by their own
means, often secretly, through Egypt since the British government
would not allow Ottoman troops to be transported en masse through Egypt. The Ottoman Navy was too
weak to transport troops by sea. The Ottomans organised local Libyans for the defence against the Italian
invasion.[26]

Between 1911 and 1912, over 1,000 Somalis from Mogadishu, the capital of Italian Somaliland, served as
combat units along with Eritrean and Italian soldiers in the Italo-Turkish War.[27] Most of the Somalian
troops stationed would return home only in 1935, when they were transferred back to Italian Somaliland in
preparation for the invasion of Ethiopia.[28]

Italian troops landing in Libya

The first disembarkation of Italian troops occurred on October 10. Having no prior military experiences and
lacking adequate planning for amphibious invasions, the Italian armies poured onto the coasts of Libya,
facing numerous problems during their landings and deployments. [29] After a destructive bombing of its
Ottoman fortifications, the city of Tripoli and surroundings were quickly conquered by 1,500 Italian sailors.
[30]

The Italian contingent of 20,000 troops was then deemed to be sufficient to accomplish the conquest.
Tobruk, Derna and Khoms were easily conquered, but the same was not true for Benghazi. The first true
setback for the Italian troops happened on October 23 at Shar al-Shatt, when the poor placement of the
troops near Tripoli led them to be almost completely encircled by
more mobile Arab cavalry, backed by some Ottoman regular units.
The attack was portrayed as a simple revolt by the Italian press
although it nearly annihilated much of the small Italian
expeditionary corps.

The corps was consequently enlarged to 100,000 men who had to

face 20,000 Libyans and 8,000 Ottomans. The war turned into one
of position. Even the Italian utilisation of armoured cars[31] and air
power, both among the earliest in modern warfare, had little effect
on the initial outcome.[32] In the first military use of heavier-than-
air craft, Capitano Carlo Piazza flew the first reconnaissance flight
on 23 October 1911. A week later, Sottotenente Giulio Gavotti
dropped four grenades on Tajura (Arabic: ‫ ﺗﺎﺟﻮراء‬Tājūrā’, or
Tajoura) and Ain Zara in the first aerial bombing in history.[33]

Trench phase

Technologically and numerically superior Italian forces easily

managed to take the shores. However, the Italians still could not
penetrate deep in to the land. [34] The Libyans and Turks,
estimated at 15,000, made frequent attacks day and night on the
strongly-entrenched Italian garrison in the southern suburbs of
Benghazi. The four Italian infantry regiments on the defensive
were supported by the cruisers San Marco and Agordat. The Ismail Enver Bey in Cyrenaica, 1911.
Italians rarely attempted a sortie.[35]

An attack of 20,000 Ottoman and local troops was repulsed on

November 30 with considerable losses. Shortly afterward, the
garrison was reinforced by the 57th infantry regiment from Italy.
The battleship Regina Elena also arrived from Tobruk. During the
night of December 14 and 15, the Ottomans attacked in great force
but were repulsed with aid of the fire from the ships. The Italians
lost several field guns.[35]

At Derna the Ottomans and the Libyans were estimated at 3,500,

but they were being constantly reinforced, and a general assault on
the Italian position was expected. The Italian and Turkish forces in
Tripoli and Cyrenaica were constantly reinforced since the
Ottoman withdrawal to the interior enabled them to reinforce their
troops considerably.[35]

Lacking a considerable navy, the Ottomans were not able to send

regular forces to Libya, the Ottoman government supported a great 16 May 1912: surrender of the
number of young Officers to travel to the area in order to rally the Ottoman garrison in Rhodes to the
locals and coordinate the resistance. Enver Bey, Mustafa Kemal Italian general Ameglio near Psithos.
Bey, Ali Fethi Bey, Cami Bey Nuri Bey and many other Turkish (From Italian weekly La Domenica
Officers managed to reach Libya, traveling under secret identities del Corriere, 26 May – 2 June 1912).
such as medical doctor, journalist etc. The Ottoman Şehzade
Osman Fuad has also joined these officers, granting a royal
support to the resistance. During the war, Mustafa Kemal Bey, the future founder of the Republic of
Turkey, has been wounded by a shrapnel to his eye. [36] The cost of the war was defrayed chiefly by
voluntary offerings from Muslims; men, weapons, ammunition and all kinds of other supplies were
constantly sent across the Egyptian and Tunisian frontiers, notwithstanding their neutrality. The Italians
occupied Sidi Barrani on the coast between Tobruk and Solum to prevent contraband and troops from
entering across the Egyptian frontier, and the naval blockaders guarded the coast and captured several
sailing ships with contraband.[35]

Italian troops landed at Tobruk after a brief bombardment on

December 4, 1911, occupied the seashore and marched towards
the hinterlands facing weak resistance.[37] Small numbers of
Ottoman soldiers and Libyan volunteers were later organized by
Captain Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The small December 22 Battle of
Tobruk resulted in Mustafa Kemal's victory.[38] With that
achievement, he was assigned to Derna War quarters to coordinate
the field on March 6, 1912. The Libyan campaign ground to a
stalemate by December 1911.[6]
Italian troops firing on the Turks in
Tripoli, 1911.
On 3 March 1912, 1,500 Libyan volunteers attacked Italian troops
who were building trenches near Derna. The Italians, who were
outnumbered but had superior weaponry, held the line. A lack of
coordination between the Italian units sent from Derna as reinforcements and the intervention of Ottoman
artillery threatened the Italian line, and the Libyans attempted to surround the Italian troops. Further Italian
reinforcements, however, stabilised the situation, and the battle ended in the afternoon with an Italian
victory.

On September 14, the Italian command sent three columns of infantry to disband the Arab camp near
Derna. The Italian troops occupied a plateau and interrupted Ottoman supply lines. Three days later, the
Ottoman commander, Enver Bey, attacked the Italian positions on the plateau. The larger Italian fire drove
back the Ottoman soldiers, who were surrounded by a battalion of Alpini and suffered heavy losses. A later
Ottoman attack had the same outcome. Then, operations in Cyrenaica ceased until the end of the war.

Although some elements of the local population collaborated with the Italians, counterattacks by Ottomans
soldiers with the help of local troops confined the Italian army to the coastal region.[8] In fact, by the end of
1912 the Italians had made little progress in conquering Libya. The Italian soldiers were in effect besieged
in seven enclaves on the coasts of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica.[39] The largest was at Tripoli and extended
barely 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the town.[39]

Naval warfare

At sea, the Italians enjoyed a clear advantage. The Italian Navy

had seven times the tonnage of the Ottoman Navy and was better
trained.[40]

In January 1912, the Italian cruiser Piemonte, with the Soldato

Italian cruiser bombarding Ottoman
vessels in Beirut harbor.
class destroyers Artigliere and Garibaldino, sank seven Ottoman
gunboats (Ayintab, Bafra, Gökcedag, Kastamonu, Muha, Ordu
and Refahiye) and a yacht (Sipka) in the Battle of Kunfuda Bay.
The Italians blockaded the Red Sea ports of the Ottomans and
actively supplied and supported the Emirate of Asir, which was
also then at war with the Ottoman Empire.[41]
Then, on 24 February, in the Battle of Beirut, two Italian armoured cruisers attacked and sank an Ottoman
casemate corvette and six lighters, retreated and returned and then sank an Ottoman torpedo boat. Avnillah
alone suffered 58 killed and 108 wounded. By contrast, the Italian ships took no casualties and also no
direct hits from any of the Ottoman warships.[42] Italy had feared that the Ottoman naval forces at Beirut
could be used to threaten the approach to the Suez Canal. The Ottoman naval presence at Beirut was
completely annihilated and casualties on the Ottoman side were heavy. The Italian Navy gained complete
naval dominance of the southern Mediterranean for the rest of the war.

Although Italy could extend its control to almost all of the 2,000 km of the Libyan coast between April and
early August 1912, its ground forces could not venture beyond the protection of the navy's guns and so
were limited to a thin coastal strip. In the summer of 1912, Italy began operations against the Ottoman
possessions in the Aegean Sea with the approval of the other powers, which were eager to end a war that
was lasting much longer than expected. Italy occupied twelve islands in the sea, comprising the Ottoman
province of Rhodes, which then became known as the Dodecanese, but that raised the discontent of
Austria-Hungary, which feared that it could fuel the irredentism of nations such as Serbia and Greece and
cause imbalance in the already-fragile situation in the Balkan area. The only other relevant military
operation of the summer was an attack of five Italian torpedo boats in the Dardanelles on 18 July.

Irregular war and atrocities

With a decree of November 5, 1911, Italy declared its sovereignty

over Libya. Although the Ottomans controlled the coast, many of
their troops were not killed in battle, and nearly 6,000 remained to
face an army of nearly 140,000 Italians. As a result, the Ottomans
began using guerrilla tactics. Indeed, some "Young Turk" officers
reached Libya and helped organize a guerrilla war with local
mujahideen.[43] Many local Libyans joined forces with the
Ottomans because of their common faith against the "Christian
invaders" and started a bloody guerrilla warfare. Italian authorities
adopted many repressive measures against the rebels, such as
Mustafa Kemal (left) with an
public hangings as retaliation for ambushes.
Ottoman military officer and Libyan
On October 23, 1911, over 500 Italian soldiers were slaughtered mujahideen.
by Turkish troops at Sciara Sciatt, on the outskirts of Tripoli.[44]
As a consequence, on the next day the 1911 Tripoli massacre had
Italian troops systematically murder thousands of civilians by moving through local homes and gardens one
by one, including by setting fire to a mosque with 100 refugees inside.[45] Although Italian authorities
attempted to keep the news of the massacre from getting out, the incident soon became internationally
known.[45] The Italians started to show photographs of the massacred Italian soldiers at Sciara Sciat to
justify their revenge.

Treaty of Ouchy
Italian diplomats decided to take advantage of the situation to obtain a favourable peace deal. On October
18, 1912, Italy and the Ottoman Empire signed a treaty in Ouchy in Lausanne called the First Treaty of
Lausanne, which is often also called Treaty of Ouchy to distinguish it from the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne,
(the Second Treaty of Lausanne).[46][47]

The main provisions of the treaty were as follows:[48]

 The Ottomans would withdraw all
military personnel from Trablus and
Benghazi vilayets (Libya), but in
return, Italy would return Rhodes
and the other Aegean islands that it
held to the Ottomans.
Trablus and Benghazi vilayets
would have a special status and a
naib (regent), and a kadi (judge)
Turkish and Italian delegations at
would represent the Caliph.
Lausanne (1912). From left to right
Before the appointment of the kadis (seating): Pietro Bertolini, Mehmet
and naibs, the Ottomans would Nabi Bey, Guido Fusinato,
consult the Italian government. Rumbeyoğlu Fahreddin Bey, and
Rumbeyoğlu The Ottoman government would be Giuseppe Volpi.
Fahreddin Bey led responsible for the expenses of
the Turkish these kadis and naibs.
delegation at
Lausanne (1912).
Subsequent events prevented the return of the Dodecanese to Turkey, however.
The First Balkan War broke out shortly before the treaty had been signed. Turkey
was in no position to reoccupy the islands while its main armies were engaged in
a bitter struggle to preserve its remaining territories in the Balkans. To avoid a Greek invasion of the
islands, it was implicitly agreed on that the Dodecanese would remain under a neutral Italian administration
until the conclusion of hostilities between the Greeks and the Ottomans, and the islands would revert to
Ottoman rule.

Turkey's continued involvement in the Balkan Wars, followed shortly by World War I (which found Turkey
and Italy again on opposing sides), meant that the islands were never returned to the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey gave up its claims on the islands in the Treaty of Lausanne, and the Dodecanese continued to be
administered by Italy until 1947, when after their defeat in World War II, the islands were ceded to Greece.

Aftermath
The invasion of Libya was a costly enterprise for Italy. Instead of
the 30 million lire a month judged sufficient at its beginning, it
reached a cost of 80 million a month for a much longer period than
was originally estimated. The war cost Italy 1.3 billion lire, nearly
a billion more than Giovanni Giolitti estimated before the war.[49]
This ruined ten years of fiscal prudence.[49]

After the withdrawal of the Ottoman army the Italians could easily Italian Alpini and Libyan corpses
extend their occupation of the country, seizing East Tripolitania, after the attack against "Ridotta
Ghadames, the Djebel and Fezzan with Murzuk during 1913.[50] Lombardia".
The outbreak of the First World War with the necessity to bring
back the troops to Italy, the proclamation of the Jihad by the
Ottomans and the uprising of the Libyans in Tripolitania forced the Italians to abandon all occupied territory
and to entrench themselves in Tripoli, Derna, and on the coast of Cyrenaica.[50] The Italian control over
much of the interior of Libya remained ineffective until the late 1920s, when forces under the Generals
Pietro Badoglio and Rodolfo Graziani waged bloody pacification campaigns. Resistance petered out only
after the execution of the rebel leader Omar Mukhtar on September 15, 1931. The result of the Italian
colonisation for the Libyan population was that by the mid-1930s it had been cut in half due to emigration,
famine, and war casualties. The Libyan population in 1950 was at the same level as in 1911, approximately
1.5 million.[51]
Europe, Balkans and First World War

In 1924, the Serbian diplomat Miroslav Spalajković could look back on the events that led to the First
World War and its aftermath and state of the Italian attack, "all subsequent events are nothing more than the
evolution of that first aggression."[52] Unlike the British-controlled Egypt, the Ottoman Tripolitania vilayet,
which made up modern-day Libya, was core territory of the Empire, like that of the Balkans.[53] The
coalition that had defended the Ottomans during the Crimean War (1853-1856), minimised Ottoman
territorial losses at the Congress of Berlin (1878) and supported the Ottomans during the Bulgarian Crisis
(1885–88) had largely disappeared.[54] The reaction in the Balkans to the Italian declaration of war was
immediate. The first draft by Serbia of a military treaty with Bulgaria against Turkey was written by
November 1911, with a defensive treaty signed in March 1912 and an offensive treaty signed in May 1912
focused on military action against Ottoman-ruled Southeastern Europe. The series of bilateral treaties
between Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro that created the Balkan League was completed in 1912,
with the First Balkan War (1912-1913) beginning by a Montenegrin attack on 8 October 1912, ten days
before the Treaty of Lausanne.[55] The swift and nearly-complete victory of the Balkan League astonished
contemporary observers.[56] However, the Serbs were unhappy with the division of captured territory and
continued to hold areas promised to Bulgaria, which resulted in the Second Balkan War (1913) in which
Serbia, Greece, the Ottomans, and Romania took almost all of the territory that Bulgaria had captured in the
first war.[57] In the wake of the enormous change in the regional balance of power, Russia switched its
primary allegiance in the region from Bulgaria to Serbia and guaranteed Serbian autonomy from any
outside military intervention. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-
Hungarian throne, by a Serbian nationalist and the resulting Austro-Hungarian plan for military action
against Serbia was a major precipitating event of the First World War (1914-1918)

The Italo-Turkish War illustrated to the French and British governments that Italy was more valuable to
them inside the Triple Alliance than being formally allied with the Entente. In January 1912, the French
diplomat Paul Cambon wrote to Raymond Poincaré that Italy was "more burdensome than useful as an ally.
Against Austria, she harbours a latent hostility that nothing can disarm".[58] The tensions within the Triple
Alliance would eventually lead Italy to sign the 1915 Treaty of London, which had it abandon the Triple
Alliance and join the Entente.

In Italy itself, massive funerals for fallen heroes brought the Catholic Church closer to the government from
which it had long been alienated. There emerged a cult of patriotic sacrifice in which the colonial war was
celebrated in an aggressive and imperialistic way. The ideology of "crusade" and "martyrdom"
characterised the funerals. The result was to consolidate Catholic war culture among devout Italians, which
was soon expanded to include Italian involvement in the Great War (1915–1918). That aggressive spirit
was revived by the Fascists in the 1920s to strengthen their popular support.[59]

The resistance in Libya was an important experience for the young officers of the Ottoman Army, such as
Mustafa Kemal Bey, Enver Bey, Ali Fethi Bey, Cami Bey Nuri Bey and many others. These young
officers were to perform important military duties and accomplishments in the First World War, led the
Turkish independency war and found the Republic of Turkey. [60]

Fate of Dodecanese Islands

Because of the First World War, the Dodecanese remained under Italian military occupation. According to
the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, which was never ratified, Italy was supposed to cede all of the islands except
Rhodes to Greece in exchange for a vast Italian zone of influence in southwest Anatolia. However, the
Greek defeat in the Greco–Turkish War and the foundation of modern Turkey created a new situation that
made the enforcement of the terms of that treaty impossible. In Article 15 of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne,
which superseded the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, Turkey formally recognised the Italian annexation of the
Dodecanese. The population was largely Greek, and by treaty in 1947, the islands eventually became part
of Greece.[61]

Literature

In his book “Primo, the Turkish Child”, the famous Turkish author Ömer Seyfettin tells the fictional story of
a boy, living in the Ottoman Thessaloniki, who has to decide his national identity between his Turkish
father and Italian mother after the wars of Italo-Turkish war and the Balkan War Ömer Seyfettin Primo
Türk Çocuğu (https://books.google.com.tr/books/about/Primo_T%C3%BCrk_%C3%A7ocu%C4%9Fu.ht
ml?id=mWidoAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y)

See also
Sciara Sciatt
Battles of Zanzur (1912)
Battle of Sidi Bilal

Notes
1. Bang, Anne (1997). The Idrisi State in Asir 1906–1934 (https://www.hurstpublishers.com/boo
k/the-idrisi-state-in-asir-1906-1934/). Hurst Publishers. p. 100. "However, in the Yemen Italy
also found some willing allies, the principal one being Muhammad al-Idrisi in Asir [...] Al-
Idrisi joined the Italian cause immediately upon the outbreak of the Turco-Italian war [...] It
appears that al-Idrisi, after the victory at al-Hafair, was engaged in some sort of peace
negotiation with the Ottomans. These tentative attempts broke down upon the outbreak of
the Turco-Italian war, which provided Idrisi forces with secure delivery of arms and naval
support from Italian warships."
2. Erik Goldstein (2005). Wars and Peace Treaties: 1816 to 1991 (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=KWWKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA37). Routledge. p. 37. ISBN 9781134899128.
3. Italy. Esercito. Corpo di stato maggiore (1914). The Italo-Turkish War (1911–12) (https://archi
ve.org/details/italoturkishwar00ital). Franklin Hudson Publishing Company. p. 15 15 (https://
archive.org/details/italoturkishwar00ital/page/15).
4. The History of the Italian-Turkish War, William Henry Beehler, p.13-36
5. World War I: A Student Encyclopedia, Spencer C. Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts, page 946
6. Emigrant nation: the making of Italy abroad (https://books.google.com/books?ei=fyR2T8j6L4
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Further reading
Askew, William C. Europe and Italy's Acquisition of Libya, 1911–1912 (1942) online (https://
www.questia.com/read/3044731/europe-and-italy-s-acquisition-of-libya-1911-1912)
Baldry, John (1976). "al-Yaman and the Turkish occupation 1849–1914". Arabica. 23: 156–
96. doi:10.1163/157005876X00227 (https://doi.org/10.1163%2F157005876X00227).
Beehler, William Henry. The history of the Italian-Turkish War, September 29, 1911, to
October 18, 1912 (https://archive.org/details/historyitaliant00beehgoog). (1913; reprint:
Harvard University Press, 2008)
Biddle, Tami Davis, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and
American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914–1945. Princeton University Press, 2002.
ISBN 978-0-691-12010-2.
Childs, Timothy W. Italo-Turkish Diplomacy and the War Over Libya, 1911–1912. Brill,
Leiden, 1990. ISBN 90-04-09025-8.
Crow, Duncan, and Icks, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Armored Cars. Chatwell Books,
Secaucus, New Jersey, 1976. ISBN 0-89009-058-0.
Hallion, Richard P. Strike From the Sky: The History of Battlefield Air Attack, 1910–1945.
(second edition) University of Alabama Press, 2010. ISBN 0817356576, 9780817356576.
Paris, Michael. Winged Warfare. Manchester University Press, New York, 1992, pp. 106–15.
Stevenson, Charles. A Box of Sand: The Italo-Ottoman War 1911–1912: The First Land, Sea
and Air War (2014), a major scholarly study
Vandervort, Bruce. Wars of imperial conquest in Africa, 1830–1914 (Indiana University
Press, 1998)

In other languages
Bertarelli, L.V. (1929). Guida d'Italia, Vol. XVII (in Italian). Milano: Consociazione Turistica
Italiana.
Maltese, Paolo. "L'impresa di Libia", in Storia Illustrata #167, October 1971.
"1911–1912 Turco–Italian War and Captain Mustafa Kemal". Ministry of Culture of Turkey,
edited by Turkish Armed Forces-Division of History and Strategical Studies, pages 62–65,
Ankara, 1985.
Schill, Pierre. Réveiller l'archive d'une guerre coloniale. Photographies et écrits de Gaston
Chérau, correspondant de guerre lors du conflit italo-turc pour la Libye (1911-1912), éd.
Créaphis, 2018. 480 pages and 230 photographs. ISBN 978-2-35428-141-0
Awaken the archive of a colonial war. Photographs and writings of a French war
correspondent during the Italo-Turkish war in Libya (1911-1912). With contributions from art
historian Caroline Recher, critic Smaranda Olcèse, writer Mathieu Larnaudie and historian
Quentin Deluermoz.
 "Trablusgarp Savaşı Ve 1911–1912 Türk-İtalyan İlişkileri: Tarblusgarp Savaşı'nda Mustafa
Kemal Atatürk'le İlgili Bazı Belgeler", Hale Şıvgın, Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 2006,
ISBN 978-975-16-0160-5

External links
Media related to Italo-Turkish War at Wikimedia Commons

Antonio De Martino.Tripoli italiana Societa Libraria italiana (Library of Congress). New York,
1911 (https://archive.org/details/tripoliitalianal00mart)
Turco-Italian War (https://web.archive.org/web/20130614033253/http://www.turkeyswar.com/t
rablusgarp.html) at Turkey in the First World War website
Johnston, Alan (2011-05-10). "Libya 1911: How an Italian pilot began the air war era" (http
s://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13294524). BBC News Online. Retrieved 10 May
2011.
Map of Europe (http://maps.omniatlas.com/europe/19120601/) during Italo-Turkish War at
omniatlas.com
V. I. Lenin, The End of the Italo-Turkish War (https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/19
12/sep/28.htm), September 28, 1912.

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