Türkiye’s largest tech, space festival opens its doors in Izmir

This year’s third edition of Türkiye’s largest aviation and technology event Teknofest kicked off on Wednesday in the Aegean city of Izmir.

The five-day festival held at Izmir’s Çığlı Airport will offer its visitors a diverse array of technology and space-themed events, ranging from air shows, exhibitions and workshops, to competitions, vertical wind tunnels, simulations and planetarium shows.

It has been jointly organized every year by the Turkish Technology Team (T3) Foundation and the country’s Ministry of Industry and Technology since 2018, in cooperation with other ministries and dozens of other public institutions, private companies and universities.

Exciting shows in the sky are also scheduled to take place, performed by the Turkish Air Force’s Turkish Stars aerobatic demonstration team, as well as the Bayraktar Akıncı and TB2 drones developed by Turkish company Baykar, and Anka by Turkish Aerospace Inc., another tech giant in the country.

Also slated to make appearances are the Turkish air show team F-16 SoloTürk, as well as the Hürküş trainer aircraft, BELL-429 helicopter, paramotors, gyrocopters and the T-129 Atak helicopter.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the festival, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır emphasized the role of youth while building Türkiye of the future, noting that the steps undertaken in the past five years demonstrate the beginning of a great social mobilization.

“Just as we achieved a significant breakthrough in the defense industry, we will also achieve great successes in all fields, from environmental energy to climate, from health to tourism, and from barrier-free life technologies through the technology initiatives established by our youth,” Kacır said.

Emphasizing that they broke unique records in the world with 337,000 teams and 1 million competitors this year, Kacır said, “We hosted a total of 3.5 million visitors in Istanbul and Ankara. We are grateful for our nation’s interest in Teknofest and for encouraging our youth in line with our ‘National Technology Move’ goals.”

Selçuk Bayraktar, the chairperson of the T3 board of trustees and the chairperson of Teknofest’s board of directors speaking at the event opening expressed delight for witnessing high participation of youth, noting he “sees every young person as a shining star contributing to the country’s history, culture and future.”

Bayraktar further pointed out that high technology is driving change and transformation in the world but that humanity is unfortunately coping with the social impacts of the rapid and unregulated dynamics of high technology.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we all saw how inadequate the world was in producing basic respiratory devices with technology. During that period, the world questioned this simple but deadly inadequacy for a long time,” he said.

“We, on the other hand, strive to combine technology with the goodness, justice and mercy of our ancient civilization to provide breath to humanity,” Bayraktar added.

Stating that they are an example to the world with national technology, he went on to point out, “Türkiye researches, develops, produces and develops in every field.”

“Our young people create new fields by blending industry with high technology and artificial intelligence. We are the ones who will give spirit to these new fields and the changing world,” he said.

The event was previously held in various Turkish cities in even years and in the metropolis of Istanbul in odd years. To mark the centenary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye, the event was planned in three different provinces this year.

The first edition of the event this year was held at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport in May, welcoming a record of 2.5 million visitors.

The second was held earlier in September in the capital Ankara, attracting nearly 1 million people.

Teknofest is being held with the participation of 121 institutions, public- and private-sector organizations, academic institutions and media companies.