Republic Day (Turkey) Republic Day (Turkey) The Republic Day of Turkey () is one of the public holidays in Turkey commemorating the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. It lasts 35 hours, starting each year at 1:00 pm on 28 October. The holiday commemorates the events of 29 October 1923, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared that Turkey was henceforth a republic. Turkey had "de facto" been a republic since 23 April 1920, the date of the establishment of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, but the official confirmation of this fact came only three-and-a-half years later. On 29 October 1923, the
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