Becoming Turkey’s gathering venue for all stakeholders in aerospace and technology, from firms to students, Teknofest, one of the world’s biggest aviation, space and technology festivals, will hold its first edition abroad in the Azerbaijani capital Baku in May.
Primarily initiated by the Turkish Technology Team (T3) foundation and the Industry and Technology Ministry in 2018 as the first national technology festival of Turkey, Teknofest aims to generate interest in technology among young people. The Teknofest Azerbaijan edition is planned to take place between May 26 and 29 in Baku, according to a press conference held Monday.
The introductory meeting of this year's edition was attended by many officials, including Rashad Nabiyev, Azerbaijan's minister of digital development, Turkish drone magnate Baykar’s General Manager and T3 Chairperson Haluk Bayraktar, Baykar CTO Selçuk Bayraktar and high ranking Turkish officials and deputy ministers.
In his speech, Nabiyev remarked that the festival would strengthen the bonds between Azerbaijan and Turkey by highlighting the honor for Azerbaijan to host this great event. He also invited everyone to the festival, especially Azerbaijani youngsters.
Selçuk Bayraktar described Teknofest as a dream come true. "Now this dream expands beyond Turkey’s borders," he said. Teknofest is an important event for Turkish youth that introduces innovative technologies and the world’s latest and future trends to support a strong national defense industry, which is crucial for independence, he added.
Explaining the growth of Teknofest and specifying the sheer number of cooperation offers from abroad, Bayraktar added, "We thought that if we are going to organize Teknofest abroad, the first destination should be Azerbaijan, the land of our brothers and sisters where we are bonded through common values."
Bayraktar concluded his speech by thanking all of the institutions and the stakeholders, especially President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev who safeguarded the organization and put emphasis on how this event would help consolidate the strong ties between Turkey and Azerbaijan.