On September 27 – October 1, 2023, within the framework of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey, the 3rd TEKNOFEST festival took place in Izmir. On September 27, the opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacir, President of Defence Industry Agency Haluk Gorgun, Izmir Governor Suleyman Elban, BAYKAR Board of Directors, T3 Foundation Board of Trustees and TEKNOFEST Board Chairman Selchuk Bayraktar and other official guests.
The festival continued with various stand and sky performances as well as stage concerts.
On the 3rd day of the event, the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visited the festival. After the stage speech, he presented prizes to the participants who won in various nominations. Later, BAYKAR Board of Directors, T3 Foundation Board of Trustees, and Chairman of TEKNOFEST Board of Directors Selcuk Bayraktar presented the TEKNOFEST plaque to the President.
During the 5-day festival, helicopters, gyrocopters, parachutes belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces, Gendarmerie, and State Border Service, as well as Turkish Stars, SoloTurk and Bayraktar TB2, Akıncı UAVs performed various aerial demonstrations.
On the last day of Teknofest, a special demonstration was shown that was first performed at the Ankara TEKNOFEST festival on 30th August Victory Day – Hurkush, Akıncı, and SoloTurk made a synchronized flight together for the first time.
One of the other historical events for the festival was, on the last day, Lieutenant-Colonel Emre Mert, the SoloTurk demo pilot, made his last flight by October. Afterward, SoloTurk pilots participated in the signing ceremony. At the end of the signing, Lieutenant-Colonel Emre Mert, Major Murat Bakici, Major Yasin Dikkule, and Senior Lieutenant Alper Shen from Human Resources took a commemorative photo together for the photojournalist of the Union of Azerbaijan Photographers and sent greetings and messages of support to Azerbaijan.
By the end, Izmir had 1.1 million visitors in total, while 943,000 people visited the Ankara festival held in August-September. Previously, 2 million 547 thousand people visited the TEKNOFEST held in Istanbul in April same year.
Author: Nurlan Tahirli
