who feared that this could fuel the irredentism of nations such as Serbia and Greece, causing unbalance in the already fragile situation in the Balkans. The final major military operation that took place during the summer of 1912 was an attack carried out by five Italian torpedo boats in the Dardanelles, on 18 July. In September, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece prepared their armies for the war against the Ottoman Empire, taking advantage of its difficulties in the war against Italy. On 8 October, Montenegro declared war on the Turks, starting the Balkan Wars. Italy then sought a favourable armistice agreement to conclude the conflict. The treaty was signed at Lausanne at 16:45 on 18 October 1912. The terms were formally equal to those requested by Istanbul at the beginning of the war, and maintained a formal Ottoman suzerainty over Libya, which received only an autonomous status under the judiciary rule of a "Cadis" elected by the Sultan. Aftermath The invasion of Libya was a costly enterprise for Italy. Instead of the 30 million liras a month judged sufficient at its beginning, it reached a cost of 80 million a month, and for a far longer period than the original estimate. This caused economic imbalance at home. From the political point, the creation of Italian Libya showed (to observers like Benito Mussolini) that the lobbying power of an active and powerful minority could have a great power in the country, as the advent of fascism would show after World War I. As for Libya itself, the Italian control over much of its territory remained very ineffective until the late 1920s, when forces under Generals Badoglio and Graziani waged punitive pacification campaigns which turned into terrible acts of repression. Resistance petered out only after the execution of rebel leader Omar Mukhtar on 15 September 1931. Successively, Libya was fully controlled by the Italians and integrated into Italian Libya and into Italy's Fourth Shore until World War II. See also History of Italy Italian rule in Libya History of the Ottoman Empire Notes Bibliography De Martino, Antonio. Tripoli italiana, la guerra italo-turca Library of Congress. Publisher: Societa' Libraria Italiana. New York, 1911 () Maltese, Paolo. "L'impresa di Libia", in Storia Illustrata No. 167, October 1971 Romano, Sergio. La Quarta sponda. La guerra di Libia, 1911/1912, Casa Editrice Bompiani. Milano, 1977 P. Hallion, Richard. Strike From the Sky: The History of Battlefield Air Attack,