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, continues at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport.
Gaziantep's Şahinbey Municipality also hosts visitors at its stand in the festival area. Mayor Mehmet Tahmazoğlu chatted with the young people here and visited the teams supported by Şahinbey Municipality.
Tahmazoğlu told the AA correspondent that they are investing in young people in order to realize the Türkiye Century, in line with the goal set by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Stating that they first built the Şahinbey Municipality Science and Art Center, Tahmazoğlu said, "Later, we provided opportunities for thousands of young people with our Deneyap Workshops and Bilim Şahinbeyler. We established the Yamaçtepe Science Camp. Every year, thousands of our young people receive education here and prepare for TEKNOFEST, the Century of Türkiye." he said.
"We support 44 teams"
Explaining that they provide support such as sponsorship, materials and transportation to the teams that want to compete in TEKNOFEST, Tahmazoğlu said:
"Today, we are reaping the fruits of this. This year, we provided sponsorship support to 44 teams and our teams were very successful, 36 of them reached the finals. The competitions are still continuing. The number of teams that have qualified so far has reached 9. The competitions continue until Sunday, I hope that this number of 9 will go much higher. We are proud of this and our young people. We especially thank our President, Mr. Selçuk Bayraktar, T3 Foundation and those who contributed to this work, who initiated and pioneered this work. "I thank everyone wholeheartedly."
Stating that he is hopeful about Generation Z, Tahmazoğlu said, "As you can see, Generation Z is here. When we set goals for our young people and provide them with opportunities, there is nothing they cannot do. For example, Mr. Selçuk (Bayraktar) came out and said years ago, 'Give me the opportunity, I will make UAVs, SIHAs, let's sell them in the world.' Today, 65 out of 100 UAVs sold in the world market are sold by Türkiye. We export UAVs to 40 countries. Our engineers did this." he said.
"We look to the future with hope"
Emphasizing that they will continue to support young people, Mehmet Tahmazoğlu said:
"When these young people are given the opportunity and supported, there is nothing they cannot do. Today, our defense industry is truly our source of pride. Our localization rate has increased from 15-20 to over 85 today. This is an incredible figure, there is no such figure in the world. I believe that this figure will go up much more in the coming years. Perhaps Turkey will dominate almost a large proportion of the world defense industry market. We will continue to support these young people. We look to the future with much more hope. This century will be Türkiye's century."
