ŞANLIURFA, Türkiye — A major milestone in Türkiye’s ongoing National Technology Initiative concluded with record-shattering participation as TEKNOFEST Southeastern Anatolia wrapped up its five-day run at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport. Organized under the joint leadership of the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) and the Ministry of Industry and Technology, alongside the active backing of 157 partner institutions, the aerospace, space, and technology festival transformed the historic southeastern city into a buzzing hub of innovation from September 30 to October 4.
Across the five days, the gathering drew immense public enthusiasm, recording an impressive regional footprint of 1.5 million visitors. Within the festival grounds at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport alone, 1.3 million attendees walked through the gates to take part in the celebrations. Blending the deep-rooted cultural heritage of Şanlıurfa with forward-looking engineering, the event reaffirmed the rapid growth of Türkiye’s domestic technology ecosystem while bringing the national vision directly to the country’s southeastern provinces.
The Şanlıurfa event represented the 15th edition of TEKNOFEST over its nine-year trajectory. Having previously convened across 14 festivals—including two editions staged abroad—and having welcomed nearly 12 million visitors in aggregate before arriving in southeastern Anatolia, TEKNOFEST reinforced its status as one of the world’s most widely attended technology and aerospace events.
Record Competitions and High-Impact Technological Contests
At the core of TEKNOFEST Southeastern Anatolia were the prestigious technology competitions, which this year shattered previous benchmarks for engagement. Organizers registered applications from every single one of Türkiye’s 81 provinces as well as from 99 different countries around the globe. Spanning 62 primary contest categories and 145 sub-categories, the competitions attracted submissions from more than 730,000 teams, representing over 1.6 million individual competitors.
Following rigorous pre-selection and technical evaluation processes, the competition pool was narrowed down to more than 2,000 finalist teams comprising upwards of 14,000 young participants. These finalists gathered on-site at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport to demonstrate their functional prototypes, defend their technical solutions before specialist juries, and showcase their projects directly to the public.
The range of competitive tracks covered virtually every critical frontier of contemporary science and engineering. Student and young professional teams presented projects focusing on artificial intelligence, precision agricultural technologies, autonomous systems, financial technologies, and advanced material sciences, among dozens of other domains. Industry juries and visiting technology enthusiasts praised the technical execution and commercial potential demonstrated by the young innovators, particularly in applications targeting sustainable farming, automated logistics, and smart industry solutions.
To ensure that viable engineering concepts could successfully progress from design boards to working systems, the festival framework provided substantial direct backing. More than 100 million Turkish Liras in material development support was distributed to participating teams during their project preparation phases, complemented by over 75 million Turkish Liras awarded in competitive prizes to top-performing teams across the various competition tracks.
Domestic Aviation and Defense Platforms Dominate the Skies
Throughout the five-day program, the open tarmac and skies above Şanlıurfa GAP Airport served as the stage for dynamic flight exhibitions and static ground displays featuring Türkiye’s indigenous aviation and defense catalog. The high-tempo flight demonstrations consistently drew hundreds of thousands of spectators each day.
The aerobatic teams of the Turkish Armed Forces led the aerial demonstrations, with the Turkish Stars (Türk Yıldızları) and the SOLOTÜRK solo display team executing complex maneuvers over the southeastern plains. Their high-speed passes and aerobatic formations drew enthusiastic cheers from the gathered crowds, turning the airport grounds into a display of domestic operational aviation capability.
Complementing the aerobatic displays was a broad showcase of home-grown fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and unmanned aerial platforms that have come to define Türkiye’s aerospace sector. Static display zones and live flight demonstrations featured the country’s next-generation fifth-generation fighter jet prototype KAAN, the unmanned combat aerial vehicle KIZILELMA, and the carrier-capable BAYRAKTAR TB-3. These cutting-edge assets were joined by battle-proven systems including the BAYRAKTAR TB-2, the twin-turboprop BAYRAKTAR AKINCI, and the HÜRJET advanced jet trainer and light attack aircraft.
The festival grounds also featured the ANKA medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned system, the T129 ATAK combat helicopter, and the indigenously developed GÖKBEY multi-role utility helicopter. Ground displays and flyovers incorporated frontline military aviation workhorses, including modernized F-16 and F-4 fighter jets, T-38 trainers, and CASA CN-235 transport aircraft. Visitors were also given access to utility, transport, and naval helicopters such as the AS 532 Cougar, Bell 429, SH-70 Seahawk, and AB 412, along with the P-72 maritime patrol aircraft and specialized tactical systems including the K2 Kamikaze and Sivrisinek platforms. For hundreds of thousands of attendees, the exhibition provided an unprecedented, close-up encounter with platforms that are usually visible only from afar.
Firsts and Immersive Experience Areas Draw Immense Public Interest
Beyond static aircraft and formal competitions, TEKNOFEST Southeastern Anatolia stood out for its interactive public spaces, which were designed to let visitors experience advanced technology hands-on rather than merely observing it from behind barricades.
The exhibition grounds featured an array of purpose-built environments, including educational planetarium domes, virtual reality simulators, and interactive engineering workshops tailored for children, students, and families. Across the concourses, hands-on activity booths introduced young visitors to fundamental concepts in physics, programming, flight mechanics, and space science.
The event’s character extended beyond conventional technology expos by functioning as a multifaceted cultural and social gathering. As daytime technical evaluations and flight displays concluded, evenings transitioned to broad public entertainment. Large-scale stage productions kept spirits high, highlighted by well-attended evening concerts featuring prominent artists Semicenk and Ceza, which drew massive crowds of youth and families to celebrate after long days in the project tents.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Joins Youth and Celebrates Award Winners
The fourth day of the festival was marked by the official visit of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who arrived in Şanlıurfa to tour the project displays, interact with student teams, and headline the festival’s premier awards ceremony. Taking the stage before a capacity crowd, the President personally handed out first-place honors and trophies to the champion teams across multiple competition tracks.
In an address delivered to the thousands of youth gathered at the airport, President Erdoğan underscored the role of the younger generation in driving national development:
"The Century of Türkiye will carry the trace, the seal, and the stamp of the TEKNOFEST generation. The young people standing here are the pride of this nation; they are the apple of this country’s eye. They are the strongest testament to a prosperous and respected Türkiye. I congratulate every single one of our youth who has turned a cherished dream into reality here at TEKNOFEST. Türkiye’s future is in safe hands."
The festival’s final day saw another high-level address during the closing ceremony, delivered by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz. Focusing on the geopolitical and socio-economic transformation of the region, Yılmaz stressed that Southeastern Anatolia is writing a completely new chapter defined by innovation rather than historical instability.
"There is now a Southeastern Anatolia where the topics of conversation are not terror, but development, young people, and entrepreneurship," Yılmaz stated. "From agriculture and food production through to the defense industry, we see this accumulation of knowledge and drive radiating into every sector. I extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to this tremendous atmosphere in Şanlıurfa and shared in this vision."
Selçuk Bayraktar: "The TEKNOFEST Generation Is Türkiye’s Fully Independent Future!"
The closing address of the festival fell to Selçuk Bayraktar, Chairman of the Board of TEKNOFEST and the T3 Foundation. Speaking with clear emotion as the five-day event concluded, Bayraktar praised the warm hospitality shown by the people of Şanlıurfa and commended the persistence displayed by every student team that had spent months building projects for the competitions.
Placing the technological gathering within the long sweep of human innovation, Bayraktar framed the participants’ efforts as a continuation of human progress:
"The journey of production that began yesterday with stone continues today with lines of code, with robots, and with artificial intelligence. In spite of those who insisted, ‘You cannot do it,’ we did it, we are doing it, and we will do it best! The TEKNOFEST youth is the youth that writes history whenever someone says ‘impossible.’ The TEKNOFEST youth is Türkiye’s fully independent future. Our path is clear, our direction is truth, and our horizon is KIZILELMA."
The technological momentum that energized Şanlıurfa over five days concluded having etched another key chapter into the chronicle of Türkiye’s National Technology Initiative. As organizers and participants packed their prototypes, the lessons, networking, and regional energy generated at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport set the tone for future editions of TEKNOFEST, which continue to travel across the country to rally the next generation around the pursuit of self-reliant scientific and industrial development.
