History of the Republic of Turkey of modern Turkey begins with the foundation of the republic on October 29, 1923, with Kemal as its first president. The government was formed from the Ankara-based revolutionary group, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues. The second constitution was ratified by the Grand National Assembly on April 20, 1924. For about the next 10 years, the country saw a steady process of secular Westernization through Atatürk's Reforms, which included the unification of education; the discontinuation of religious and other titles; the closure of Islamic courts and the replacement of Islamic canon law with a secular civil code modeled
History of the Jews in Turkey although there is no known official record for other Turkish Jews who may have died during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. According to Rifat Bali, Turkish authorities bear some responsibility for the Struma disaster, killing about 781 Jewish refugees and 10 crew, due to their refusal to allow the Jewish refugees on board to disembark in Turkey. William Rubinstein goes further, citing British pressure on Turkey not to let "Struma"s passengers disembark, in accordance with Britain's White Paper of 1939 to prevent further Jewish immigration to Palestine. When the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923, Aliyah was not particularly