President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday used Türkiye's biggest aviation and technology festival to hail the breakthrough in the country's defense industry, which he suggested would be crowned with record exports this year.
Stressing the ground covered over the last two decades, Erdoğan said homegrown platforms on display at Teknofest showcased not only products of the national technology drive but also Türkiye's consistent growth.
"Teknofest is not just about showcasing our national technological achievements; it reflects the growing, strengthening, and confident Türkiye that transcends boundaries," the president told a packed crowd at the Çiğli Airport in the Aegean province of Izmir.
"It symbolizes the determination, effort, patience, and courage prevailing amid challenges. Here, we witness the resilient willpower against difficulties and hearts passionate about overcoming any obstacle," he noted.
Erdoğan expressed his government's commitment to making Türkiye fully independent in defense and reiterated his confidence in the bright future that lies ahead, guided by the young minds.
Türkiye's profound transformation in the defense industry has been spurred by a score of Western embargoes. The transformation since 2002 has aimed at reducing external dependency on Western arms through innovative engineering initiatives and domestically developed technologies and ensuring self-sufficiency.
The drive prompted the development of a range of homegrown air, land, and marine platforms, eventually helping lower Türkiye's foreign dependency in defense from around 80% in the early 2000s to some 20% today.
The capabilities of its vehicles, spearheaded by combat drones, triggered unprecedented demand that saw Türkiye seal billions of dollars worth of export deals in recent years.
Exports hit a record of nearly $4.5 billion in 2022, and Erdoğan sees them hitting another peak this year.
"With our defense industry initiatives, our exports are increasing exponentially. Our goal this year is to surpass $6 billion," the president said.
"Just as we increased our exports in this area from $248 million to $4.5 billion last year, I hope we will manage to surpass these figures," he added.
"We will work tirelessly day and night until the goal of a fully independent Türkiye in defense is achieved."
The event in Izmir, which kicked off on Wednesday and lasts through Sunday, marks the third edition of Teknofest this year, coinciding with the centenary of the Republic of Türkiye.
The event was previously held in various Turkish cities in even years and in the metropolis of Istanbul in odd years.
This year's first edition at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport in May welcomed a record 2.2 million visitors. The second, held from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3 in the capital Ankara, attracted nearly 1 million people.
Erdoğan said some 330,000 visitors had flocked to the Çiğli Airport in the first two days of Teknofest Izmir.
Teknofest exhibits Türkiye's latest advancements in aviation and technology, spanning from combat drones and fighter jets to helicopters. It features competitions, air shows, exhibitions, and workshops, as visitors can experience vertical wind tunnels, simulations, and planetarium shows.
"We wanted to make Teknofest accessible to as many young people as possible, so instead of one city, we organized the festival in three cities," Erdoğan said.
He commended the youth for their resilience and unwavering dedication to advancing Turkish technology. "Here we see the nation that has broken century-old chains imposed upon Türkiye," he said.
Erdoğan highlighted the rapid completion of tests related to Kızılelma, an unmanned fighter jet that is expected to have a significant impact on Türkiye's airpower.
Erdoğan also recalled the domestically built fifth-generation warplane, named Kaan, and stressed the strengthening of Türkiye's dominance in unmanned combat aerial vehicles with Akıncı and Aksungur.
