Erdoğan honors 57 scientists for excellence in research and innovation

With the support of TÜBA and TÜBİTAK, I greet the esteemed members of our institutions, valued scientists, and guests with my heartfelt emotions.

Welcome to our Presidential Complex, the home of the nation. I am pleased to be with you on this occasion and wish success to our scholars. I send my regards to each one of them. Through these awards, we are presenting prizes to 57 scientists.

A total of 7 works were awarded prizes. We are presenting these awards to 25 young people from 20 different universities. Since 2021, the number of young scientists who have won TÜBA awards will rise to 669.

A DELAYED POSITION

One of the leading figures of medicine, the philosopher and scientist Ibn Sina from Bukhara, said 1,000 years ago, "Science and art flee from places where they are not appreciated."

Looking at both our personal lives and societies, we see how valuable encouragement and support are. Many groundbreaking ideas have been abandoned on the dusty shelves of history when they failed to receive support in time.

For many years, science and technology in Türkiye were seen as a field worked on by a handful of idealists using their own resources. While we are at an exceptional point in terms of scientific accumulation, we are behind in terms of institutionalizing it.

For example, many scientific academies in Europe were established in the 7th century. Up until the 18th century, Eastern civilization, particularly scientists from the Turkish-Islamic world, had greatly influenced and nurtured European civilization.

However, the inability to continue this process led to regression. Additionally, we must account for the internal sabotage within our country. This mentality has emerged during our time as well.

They claimed Türkiye's first electric car brand, Togg, had no factory. They compared KAAN to a radiator. They belittled the Turkish astronaut and science mission, calling it a tourist trip. With every success of drones and UAVs, they suffered from nervous breakdowns.

Superconductor Chip Production House

We also witnessed the same narrow-mindedness during the inauguration of Türkiye's first quantum computer. Quantum computers are only found in 15 countries. With this step in quantum technology, we aim to position Türkiye in a strong global competitive position.

In the upcoming period, we will take another step toward high-capacity quantum computers with the establishment of our superconductor chip production house. Yet, some still criticize this. Initially, we worked to break the chains placed on minds.

Instead of the perception of "nothing will come of it," we tried to instill the confidence of "we can achieve it."

TÜRKİYE IS NOT A COUNTRY OF SECOND-HAND IDEAS

Türkiye is neither anyone's colony nor a country where second-hand ideas are produced. To be free, we must be original. We must develop original projects. We want to move from being a country dependent on others to activating our own resources.

Over 22 years, we have built a strong infrastructure. We worked to eliminate infrastructure deficiencies. We raised the number of universities from 76 to 208. We built a strong, dynamic research and development and entrepreneurship ecosystem not only in certain cities but across all regions.

We increased the number of design centers from zero to 331. The number of technoparks increased from 2 to 1042. We established 130 technology workshops in every province. We included information technology courses in primary and secondary education curricula.

We have 15,951 ongoing projects. We have supported projects worth a total of 128 billion dollars. We provided 35 billion dollars of support to scientists. In the 9th Technofest, over 790,000 teams applied in 50 categories.

TÜRKİYE IS BIGGER THAN TÜRKİYE

Türkiye is bigger than Türkiye. The Turkish nation cannot escape its destiny, nor can it hide. Others may not see this from their own country's perspective. Those who ask what Türkiye is doing in Syria may not comprehend this vision.