A special ceremony involving 1,453 trucks was arranged Monday near Istanbul's new airport to celebrate the 564th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul.
The number of trucks participating in the event represents the year 1453 when Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II (Mehmet the Conqueror) took Istanbul from the Byzantine Empire through a successful military campaign.
The spectacle took place at Istanbul New Airport's first landing strip, according to a statement from IGA, a construction consortium tasked with building the new airport. The parade, which lasted for nearly two hours and required seven hours of preparation, occupied an enormous area and involved nearly 3,000 people operating the trucks.
The 1,453 trucks traveled 3.2 kilometers non-stop within the scope of the event and attempted to set a new Guinness record in the "Longest Truck Lane" category.
The previous record was set by 416 trucks in 2004 at a project in the Netherlands. Having nearly three times more vehicles participating this time, IGA hopes to put Turkey's accomplishment in the Guinness Book of World Records.
A total of 2,200 trucks were waiting in the machine park ready for the parade at the Istanbul Third Airport which has a machine park equipped with 3,022 state-of-the-art vehicles.
The Guinness Record Advisor Prof. Dr. Orhan Kural and other officials were present at the event as all the necessary applications were made.
IGA Airport Construction CEO Yusuf Akçayoğlu, who made a statement regarding the gesture made by IGA employees for Istanbul, said, "Today, all the members of the IGA family, especially our engineers, drivers and workers, were faced with a difficult task in memory of the conquest of Istanbul on May 29, 1453, which is an important date in world history. We are a nation that has always shown what we can do when we come together as in the spirit of conquest, which ended an age and started another." Stressing that in the same way and with the same spirit, the IGA consortium is working with all of their power to complete the new airport for Istanbul that is being followed by the entire world with keen interest, Akçayoğlu said that the employees who have exerted their efforts, merit and virtues every day in a manner worthy of Turkey, prepared a parade for the memory of the conquest of Istanbul.
"We are proud to prove this project to the entire world with the dedication and commitment of our employees, by demonstrating all our power in a way that will crown the name of our country. When the Istanbul Third Airport is completed, I am sure it will bring an end to the current aviation period and start a new era," he asserted.
Istanbul New Airport, which is slated to be the largest airport in the world when fully completed in 2023, will serve as Turkeytarget="_blank"'>