"Turkey organisers fined $5 million"

This is a headline at f1.com, but there's no accompaning story and nothing on Google... Any idea what this is about?

 

It's probably about the whole podium debacle, i'll see if i can find anything more.

 

G'day,

This article explains the political aspect of this story and may open up and inflame hostilities on Cyprus and between Greece and Turkey. The Greeks consider the invasion of Cyprus, by Turkey, as a double-cross by the United-States, because the Military Gov't in Greece at the time was a puppet of the CIA, as viewed by the majority of Greek Citizens. It probably was. It opens this all up and NATO and the European Economic Community are now involved in this Arguement. I don't know if Turkey is a Full Member of the EEC, or still on probation, as such?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5292914.stm

Ciao...Paolo

 

Crawford. Probably you missed the story.

In a nutshell, the President of the (unrecognised) Turkish Republic of Cyprus was invited by the Turkish sporting authorities to present the trophies at the end of the GP.

Apparently, it's in flagrant violation of the FIA code of practice that says that important personalities must present trophies, but not for political gains.

It looks like Turkey, which is alone in recognising the TRC -North Cyprus - has tried to use the presence of their president to push their cause.

I don't know about $5m, I thought it was only $1m. At one point, they were threatened with loosing the GP!

 

From Crash.net

Turkey guilty, fined not banished.

The Turkish Grand Prix will remain on the Formula One schedule, despite having been found guilty of breaching the sport's podium protocols at last month's second running.

The World Motor Sport Council found against the National Sporting Authority of Turkey [TOSFED] and the organisers of the Turkish Grand Prix [MSO] on the count of infringing the 'political neutrality' that the FIA holds dear. The post-race ceremony saw Felipe Massa handed his trophy by Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who was represented as the 'president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' - a region recognised only by Turkey itself. The elected Greek-Cypriot south of Cyprus forms the government recognised by the rest of the world.

The FIA also revealed at the time that the identities of the podium party had been delayed, leading to confusion over how to caption Talat's appearance on the rostrum.

Despite precedents - and messages from the FIA - suggesting no compromise for the violation, leaving Turkey potentially banished to the F1 wilderness for the incident, the drivers, in particular, will be grateful to learn that the race will retain its place among the summer schedule, with the WMSC deciding instead to fine the two organisations responsible for the 'incident' a combined total of $5 million.

The decision to offer Turkey a reprieve will also come as good news for both the World Rally and World Touring Car championships, which both have events to run in the country this year. Both events had been rumoured under threat should Turkey have been ostracised. Instead, all concerned appear to have got off rather more lightly than expected.

 

And they continue to wonder what is wrong with F1.

As far as I am concerned, if somebody (a country) has paid the fee to run a race, then they can decide who they want on the podium, or who will hand who a trophy.

Such petty BS.

 

There truly is some ironly in the FIA not wanting to be 'political'!

 

see here

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=136086229&postcount=1

 

I dunno about that. F1 is supposed to be international and have no biases at all. The FIA doesn't wanna piss off anybody in that regard and with good reason. All we need is some goddamed terrorist to start looking at F1 races because someone did or said the wrong thing.

 

So, can I conclude that if the organisers of the next US GP invite Osama Bin Ladden or Fidel Castro to hand over the trophies, there would be no objection?

 

They should of banned Turkey for atleast 1yr. $5million isnt alot in the grand scheme of things. Im waiting till Greece reacts they are a member of the EU and will cause problems.

slightly edited by mod

 

Well, to be honest, yes.

If I paid $20 million dollars in fees just to HAVE a race, I should be able to have anyone I want to hand out the trophy.
Besides, don't you think you are comparing apples to oranges here ?
The guy is NOT Osama nor is he Saddam Hussein, and he's not Idi Amin.

George Bush isn't the most popular guy now, so I guess he should not be handing out any trophies, either ?
(well, you DID bring up 'terrorist targets'...)

Besides, how many of you remember who handed out trophies at any of the races you have ATTENDED ?

Maybe what they did was wrong, I dunno, but it seems like 5 million bucks is a pretty good chunk of money, if it was such a big deal,
I'd fine them like 1 million AND have them put up a 5 million dollar bond (on top of the regular one) for the next year's race, and if they do
it again, they forfeit the bond.

Maybe they should be proactive and require that from ALL organizers ?

 

Exactly!
F1 is still a sport, and as such shouldn't be exploited by politicians to make cheap statements.

Beside FIA has rules concerning this, that the GP organisers blatantly transgressed.

$5 m fine is a light sentence IMO; the country should have been banned for 5 years of ALL international competitions, including Turkish Rally and so on.
That should have been punishment enough, and send a warning shot to any country which decides to pull the same stunt.

The international community shouldn't be allowed to forget that Turkey invaded another country 40 years ago, has never been punished for it, still forcibly occupies 1/3 of its territory and now tries to gain legitimity by dubious mean.

Here in Europe, the issue of Northern Cyprus (or the Turkish Republic of Cyprus as they call it), keeps coming back all the time, in business, in sport, in tourism, etc... Endorsing the Turkish claim is just like applauding Sadam Hussein after he invaded Kuwait. The country should have been bombed long time ago...

 

************

Organisers of the Turkish Grand Prix have just thirty days to pay a $5 million fine imposed on Tuesday morning by the FIA's World Motor Sport Council.

The revelation means that, despite escaping the ultimate sanction for politicising the podium ceremony at the Istanbul event last month, the race scheduled for August 26 next year is still in doubt.

"We've only got a very short period to find the money," track manager Baran Asena acknowledged to British broadcaster ITV, "but we are sure our race, which has been one of the most popular additions to Formula One, will stay on the calendar. "

The Istanbul Park - otherwise known as the 'Otodrom' - circuit issued a short statement after the Council's decision, insisting that future Grand Prix in Turkey 'will continue uninterrupted'.

Honda's Team Principal Nick Fry admitted that Turkey would be a significant loss to the sport.

"For the car manufacturers and for all the sponsors, it would be losing a growth market and that would be commercially not great," the Briton said.

Source GMM
CAPSIS International

************

 

Pointless for me to continue debating this, but all of your points are well-taken.

 

Good for Turkey. If anything, I think they should've been taken off the calendar for a spell, this smells of minor slap on the wrist. What they did was flagrantly political and in bad taste.

 

Try www.grandprix.com


http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17486.html

A little more on the controversy......

 

For the guy who reported this twice...... yes I do read them, I just prefer to stay out of the racing section.

As for the rest of it..... chill