History of Turkey newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923, in the new capital of Ankara. Mustafa Kemal became the republic's first President of Turkey and subsequently introduced many radical reforms with the aim of founding a new secular republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past. The Ottoman fez was abolished, full rights for women politically were established, and new writing system for Turkish based upon the Latin alphabet was created. According to the Law on Family Names, the Turkish parliament presented Mustafa Kemal with the
Jewish Museum of Turkey the history of the Zülfaris Synagogue, the Hahambaşı institution, daily life of Jews living in Istanbul and Anatolia, as well as artifacts such as letters, maps, tallits, fermans (imperial decrees) are on display. A copy of the Lausanne Treaty that recognized the sovereignty of the Republic of Turkey and with which Turkish Jews relinquished their minority privileges. The ehal (ark) on the same floor holds two torah scrolls which can be viewed. On another information panel, Jewish academicians who fled to Turkey from Europe during the Second World War and Turkish diplomats who helped Jews escape the Holocaust, some of