THE LAST STRUGGLE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN NORTH AFRICA: THE TURKISH-ITALIAN WAR OF 1911-1912 AND THE ROLE OF MUSTAFA KEMAL

The Ottoman Empire participated in almost uninterrupted wars in Europe, the Russian front and the Middle East from the 1877 Turkish-Russian War until 1922. Italy, which started its occupation struggle towards the end of the 19th century, was late compared to many European states in this regard. When Britain began to occupy Egypt and France to occupy Algeria and Tunisia, the Italians aimed to occupy Tripoli, the last Ottoman territory in North Africa. This study examines how the combatants handled the military and diplomatic deadlocks that turned into the Libyan War, which resulted in the First Balkan War in 1912, when the Ottoman Empire was forced to make peace with Italy in order to avoid facing a more dangerous enemy. The Italo-Turkish War was the first armed conflict between the smaller Great Powers and led to an inexorable deterioration of the situation in the Balkans and Sarajevo. The heroism of the Ottoman Empire, whose power in the region was limited, was at a high level against the enemy, which was much superior to it in terms of both strength and weapons. Although the resistance of soldiers and mujahideen against the Italians since the beginning of the war was successful, it was not enough to completely remove the Italians from Tripoli. Captain Mustafa Kemal, together with a few of his friends who went to Tripoli voluntarily in 1911, first reached Egypt and then with difficulty reached Tobruk and Derne, and despite all the adverse conditions, they fulfilled the duties assigned to them in the best possible way.