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View Full Version : Turkey, or how to lose your GP through politics



The Doctor
08-31-06, 04:46 PM
I came upon this today, having previously ignored the other stories on grandprix.com about this. Apparently Turkey has caused quite a fuss by having the leader of the internationally non-existant Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus present the winner's trophy, failing to notify the FIA of who was going to present the trophy until virtually the last second, and then admitting they did it deliberately and for political reasons. Thus, Turkey may get a huge kick in the ass from the FIA on Sept. 19 at a WMSC meeting.

See the following for interesting reads:
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17371.html
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17372.html
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17376.html
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17382.html


According to our sources, the Turks will have to answer for various breaches in the rules, beginning with the very first Article of the FIA Statutes, which states that FIA members shall "refrain from manifesting racial, political or religious discrimination" in the course of their activities. In addition there is Article 151c of the FIA International Sporting Code which states that those involved in the sport should avoid "any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally".

The non-adherence to the podium procedures is laid down in Appendix 3 of the F1 Sporting Regulations which state that "the winning driver's award will be presented by the head of state or the prime minister of the host country or the FIA President. If such a person is not available, a comparable person within the host country, or a dignitary of international status should be invited. Should neither of these be available, the President of the ASN will be invited to present the winner's trophy".


Murat Yalcintas, the head of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce which funds the race, told the Anatolia news agency that "the Formula 1 race was a great opportunity. Cyprus is our national cause." Worse still, Yalcintas made it clear that the Turks deliberately delayed telling the F1 authorities who would be handing out the prizes until the day of the race. The rules oblige the race organizers to notify the F1 authorities on the day before the race but Yalcintas said that "as we had Mr Talat in mind, we delayed giving the notification as much as we could. We gave the information around noon on the day of the race".


"Max nearly spat out his tea when that came on the screen," said an FIA insider.

chop456
09-01-06, 06:22 AM
"We'll ignore that whole slaughtering of Kurds thing and award you a race, but if you screw around with podium etiquette, there'll be hell to pay!" :gomer:

cameraman
09-01-06, 02:53 PM
The track was a good one. Too bad it looks like it will be gone.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17385.html :shakehead

oddlycalm
09-01-06, 03:03 PM
I raised an eyebrow when it was first announced on the 2005 schedule and I'm not surprised in the least it's come to this quickly. While the world of commerce wants very much for Turkey to be integrated into the EU, they tend to want to gloss over some rather glaring realities.

Too bad, it's the best new track on the schedule in some time. I'm looking for Bernie to replace it with a race in Greece thereby creating an animosity that will last a 100yrs... :gomer:

oc

cameraman
09-01-06, 03:06 PM
He is very good at that.

Lux Interior
09-02-06, 07:48 AM
Good story. Max and Bernie don't fool around, so I bet that race is yanked. It is a shame, because that is one beautiful track and this years race was stellar.

Indy
09-06-06, 01:46 AM
"We'll ignore that whole slaughtering of Kurds thing and award you a race, but if you screw around with podium etiquette, there'll be hell to pay!" :gomer:

Max and Bernie always keep their priorities straight.