Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Edirne Governor Yunus Sezer, Edirne Deputy Fatma Aksal, Trakya University Rector Prof. Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu, the first Turkish Astronaut Alper Gezeravcı, provincial protocol, academic and administrative staff and students attended the event held at the Balkan Congress Centre.

            In his greeting speech at the event, Prof. Dr. Tabakoğlu expressed his pleasure of hosting Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır and the first Turkish Astronaut Alper Gezeravcı at Trakya University. While informing the attendees Prof. Dr. Tabakoğlu underlined that Trakya University is a pioneering university in the region and the Balkans. He also emphasized the significant achievements of Trakya University in Teknofest and expressed his thanks to the event's organizers.

            Governor Yunus Sezer said, "Today we are with an astronaut for the first time, we will be listening to Alper Gezeravcı. Hopefully, the new generation will have a say in the space race with his contributions. I would like to say that I am very happy with the presence of our Minister."

            At the beginning of his speech, Minister of Industry and Technology Kacır expressed his satisfaction of being at Trakya University in Edirne and emphasized that the greatest asset Türkiye has is youth. Stating that innovative technologies change the world and innovative technologies are produced by young people, Kacır said that the National Technology Initiative is for the youth of Türkiye and the Teknofest generation. “I believe that the TEKNOFEST competitions -which have neared a million-, the TEKNOFEST generation and its youth will bring Türkiye to the top in the National Technology Initiative. On this journey Turkish youngsters are to carry our country further every day. They will show their success not only in aviation but also in space sciences." Kacır emphasized that his foremost task is to remove the obstacles young people face.

            Stating that Türkiye is striving for full independence in critical technologies, Minister Kacır said that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has demonstrated his will to produce the needs of our country with domestic and national resources since the 2000s. Speaking about the technological products produced in our country recently, Kacır underlined that Türkiye will continue to lead with their success in the field of space and satellite technologies.

            After the gift giving, first Turkish Astronaut Gezeravcı took stage and said, "My story started in May 2022. I stumbled upon a statement made by our President. For the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye, a Turkish citizen would be sent to space for the first time. After my extensive research in space and astronomy, I sent my application the second I was sure I was up for the task." He told the students about his adventure of becoming an astronaut and talked about his training. Gezeravci mentioned his experiences in the countries he went for education and informed the attendants about the experiments he did on the space mission and the purposes of the experiments. Stating that they carried out 13 experiments on the space station in 14 days and completed their experiments within the planned timetable, Gezeravcı underlined that it was a point of pride that Türkiye was one of the 22 countries in the world that sent an astronaut to space.

            Gezeravcı also talked about the goals of our country in his speech and said, "In 2018, our country established the Turkish Space Agency. After only two years of preparation, our President determined 10 main targets for space for the Republic of Türkiye in February 2021. Sending a Turkish astronaut and our science mission was only one of these ten goals. Today, we are proud and and happy to have established this goal alongside our amazing community. However, we will feel even more proud when we reach all ten goals are.  We have only achieved one of them now. I fully believe that these goals will be achieved one by one soon. Stating that the Turkish Space Agency will do its best to achieve its goals, Gezeravcı showed appreciation to the participants before ending his remarks.

            After the first Turkish Astronaut Alper Gezeravcı finished his speech, Rector Prof. Dr. Tabakoğlu presented his gift to Gezeravcı.

Translated by: Yiğit Ercan & Elif Beyza Sin (Department of English Translation and Interpreting)