Alper Gezeravcı: Türkiye has the infrastructure to be a stakeholder in the space ecosystem

Aviation, Space and Technology Festival (TEKNOFEST), of which Anadolu Agency (AA) is the "Global Communication Partner" and carried out by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and the T3 Foundation, welcomes its visitors at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport.

Reminding that the 9th TEKNOFEST was held in Şanlıurfa this year, Gezeravcı said, "Şanlıurfa is the city with the highest and highest young population in Türkiye. We share the excitement of our brothers and sisters gathered from the surrounding provinces and the whole region." he said.

Stating that they came together with young people in the event tents, Gezeravcı said, "We continue these activities to bring together the work already done with our brothers, who are the guarantee of our future, where we will clearly see the results of the recent work done by the Republic of Turkey in the fields of defense, aviation and space, and to take them to a level that will inspire their excitement at a further point." he said.

Gezeravcı emphasized that the sentence "Let a child come and touch a plane" is a sentence repeated throughout the festival flow at TEKNOFEST, and underlined that its meaning is very deep.

Explaining that as a citizen who had the opportunity to take part in Türkiye's first manned space mission, he could not touch a plane until he was 18, Gezeravcı said, "We are witnessing here an area where individuals from toddlerhood to childhood, who came here holding the hand of their parents, to our brothers and sisters who have determined a career path for themselves at university age, can clearly see in their minds the results of the capabilities of the Republic of Turkey and inspire them on the path they will follow." made his assessment.

Gezeravcı emphasized that they observed on-site how concrete results the organization held in this environment, where they could share their excitement, establish one-on-one interaction and dialogue, and see their reactions clearly, resulted.

Stating that it has not been fully understood to date what the infrastructure Türkiye has accessed through defense and aviation corresponds to in the space ecosystem, Gezeravcı said:

"We had the opportunity to clearly understand what our capacity is, outside of a limited field of activity in space such as satellites, when we operated together with international components. Türkiye's facilities and industrial infrastructure are at a level that can include the country as a stakeholder in any space ecosystem. The important thing is to include it in the project that will find a clear response in the position it deserves among the gears of this ecosystem."

"Work continues to channel the space ecosystem into international collaborations."

Gezeravcı drew attention to the 77th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2026) to be held in Antalya on October 5-9, and pointed out the importance of bringing together the infrastructure and human resources available in Türkiye in this field and holding the congress in Türkiye.

Touching on the concrete outputs that the congress will provide to Türkiye, Gezeravcı stated that it is important to present the summaries of scientific articles coming from universities on this subject.

Gezeravcı stated that the most applications for submitting these article summaries to the evaluation committees were received from Türkiye and said:

"We are at the point where the bottom wave of the business has emerged. We have been able to convey this excitement in a way that can spread to this audience. The net products they can produce will continue to spread as industrial outputs in the next phase. In the next period, efforts continue to rehabilitate the institutions that are responsible for the space ecosystem, to better channel the space ecosystem into international collaborations, and to achieve integration with them."