Whereas every year on October 29, the people of Turkey and Turkish Americans celebrate Turkish Republic Day, commemorating the day when Turkey became a republic; Whereas, on October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was formally established and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the visionary leader of modern Turkey, became its first President; Whereas Anatolia, home of the Republic of Turkey, has been a cradle of civilizations for millennia; Whereas James Madison and the Founding Fathers of America took inspiration from Patara, Turkey, the city state of the Lycian Confederation, in drafting the Constitution of the United States; Whereas Turkey has the 17th largest economy in the world; Whereas in 2016, United States trade in goods with Turkey exceeded $9,300,000,000 in exports and $8,000,000,000 in imports; Whereas Turkey, located in a critical region of the world between East and West with a population of nearly 80,000,000, commands the second largest military in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and partners with the United States in the fields of energy diversification, counterterrorism, and drug and human trafficking prevention; Whereas Turkey is actively contributing to the fight against DAESH/ISIS, through providing its military facilities to the United States and other coalition partners; Whereas the conflict in neighboring Syria has especially burdened Turkey, which has taken in and provided shelter, relief, and social services to more than 3,000,000 refugees fleeing the horrors of the Assad regime; Whereas, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Turkey is now the highest refugee-hosting country in the world; Whereas Turkish Americans are an important part of the fabric of the United States, as evinced by their contributions to the arts, science, academia, law, business, and political life of this country