Handan Kazanci
01 October 2023•Update: 02 October 2023
IZMIR, Türkiye
Marking the end of a third successful festival this year, Türkiye's premier technology and aerospace event TEKNOFEST wrapped up in the Aegean province of Izmir on Sunday.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, Selcuk Bayraktar, chairman of the festival organizer, the Turkish Technology Team (T3) Foundation, said more and more young people have been taking part in TEKNOFEST since 2018, when it was first held.
“The TEKNOFEST generation gets bigger every year,” he added.
“In the nine TEKNOFESTs we have held so far, some 2 million young people have competed with their projects,” he added.
“More than 9 million visitors came to TEKNOFEST and experienced the future of Türkiye,” he added.
Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir told the crowd that he sees every single visitor to the event as a protector of Türkiye’s National Technology Initiative.
The initiative aims to enhance high-value production and raise Türkiye’s share of technology exports through private sector collaboration.
Both Kacir and Bayraktar made a point of condemning Sunday’s terrorist suicide bomber attack in front of the Security Directorate General in the capital Ankara, which left two police officers with minor injuries.
The five-day TEKNOFEST – Türkiye's premier technology and aerospace festival, held three times this year for the first time – kicked off on Wednesday in Izmir and featured competitions, air shows, exhibits, workshops, wind tunnels, simulations, and planetariums.
Co-organized every year by the T3 Foundation and the Industry and Technology Ministry since 2018, the banner festival is held in cooperation with other ministries and dozens of other public institutions, private firms, and universities.
Anadolu has been among TEKNOFEST's media shareholders as a global communications partner since the festival began.
The event was previously held in various Turkish cities in even years and in the Istanbul metropolis in odd years.
To mark the centenary of the Republic of Türkiye, this year the event was held at three different sites in Türkiye's largest cities, first at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport in May, welcoming a world record 2.2 million visitors, and next in the capital Ankara, attracting nearly 1 million people.
