Türkiye's renowned tech event Teknofest kicks off in Turkish Cyprus

NICOSIA

Türkiye's aviation and aerospace festival Teknofest opened its doors on May 1 at the former Ercan Airport in Turkish Cypriot capital Nicosia, drawing technology enthusiasts, young innovators and science lovers from across the region.

The four-day event, running through May 4, marks the festival’s first-ever edition on the island.

Teknofest is Türkiye’s premier technology festival, held in various Turkish cities in even years and in Istanbul in odd years. This year, the event will be held twice, once in Turkish Cyprus and once in Istanbul.

Held under the auspices of the Turkish Cypriot Presidency and co-organized by the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3 Foundation) and the Turkish Industry and Technology Ministry, the festival in Turkish Cyprus aims to bring science and technology closer to the public.

Turkish institutions, including the Turkish Space Agency, development agencies, the Turkish patent and standards bodies are participating in the event.

These institutions will showcase projects and organize activities across a wide range of fields, such as defense, artificial intelligence, space research and local production technologies.

Midway through the event, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is scheduled to visit Nicosia on May 3 to both inaugurate the island’s newly built presidential and parliamentary complex, described as a symbolic gift from Türkiye to Turkish Cyprus, and attend the festival.

Throughout the four-day event, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) will host two large thematic tents, featuring content from various key research institutes.

These institutes will offer a variety of interactive experiences, allowing visitors to engage in scientific demos, hands-on tech experiments, tech applications and knowledge competitions.

TÜBİTAK’s “Beyond the Horizon” exhibition will also highlight the space missions of Türkiye’s first astronauts, Alper Gezeravcı and Tuva Cihangir Atasever. The exhibition includes interactive features like the CUPOLA module (observatory module of the International Space Station), astronaut gear, mission patches and a space-themed game.

The festival will also feature impressive air shows, with performances by Solotürk, the Turkish Stars, F-4 fighter jets, the ATAK helicopter, Hürkuş, ANKA 3 and the Bayraktar TB-2 and TB-3 drones.

More than 47,000 participants from 22 countries applied to Teknofest in Turkish Cyprus. Of these, 268 teams and 1,083 individuals qualified for the finals. Among the finalists, 334 are women and 749 are men.

The competitions span 13 sub and six main categories, such as social innovation, flying car simulation, tourism technologies, roboleague blue homeland, research projects and the drone championship. Finalists come from Türkiye, Turkish Cyprus, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Indonesia. Turkish Cyprus is represented by 20 finalist teams and 103 participants.

Last year’s Teknofest, held in the southern Turkish city of Adana, attracted over 1.1 million visitors. The first 10 editions of the event hosted over 10 million people in total, and saw over 4 million competition applicants.