There is a big political row going on at present and it is about politics far beyond motor racing.

The Turks wanted to make a political point and the Turkish Grand Prix is the event with the highest profile which occurs there. Someone might have thought about history, ancient and recent, before granting a nation with no tradition of racing a slot in the World Championship.

The trophies on the podium in the Turkish GP were presented by Mehmet Ali Talat, President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) which, in 1983, broke away from the Republic of Cyprus. The TRNC, essentially the North Eastern part of the island, is recognised only by Turkey and by no other country. In effect, it is an illegal province of Turkey, under Turkish protection, and it even uses Turkish currency.

You are in for a brief history lesson, but stay with me. The present brouhaha is history turned sour.

The Greeks and the Turks have long been at each other's throats. In the mists of history or mythology a Turk eloped with a Greek woman and that led to the launch of a thousand ships, a wooden horse and some wonderful poetry.

By about 1000 BC Cyprus was essentially a Greek island. That is when King David ruled an 'empire' which was actually no larger than Yorkshire. From about 750 BC, the island was invaded by the Assyrians, Egyptians and Persians, anyone who could muster a few galley slaves. Alexander the Great got it back in 333 BC and Cyprus was Greek again until 58 BC when it became part of the Roman Empire.

When the Roman Empire split in the 5th Century, Cyprus became part of the Byzantium part, which had Constantinople (now Istanbul) as its capital. The appalling Norman mass-murderer King Richard I, of England, whose spin doctors named him 'Lionheart', took the island and he sold it to the Knights Templar. They then sold it on to Guy de Lusignan who established Catholicism as the official religion. When you can buy an entire country on Ebay, you will know we've caught up.

The Venetians had their turn for a while until, in 1571, Cyprus became part of the Ottoman Empire, which was Turkey under a different name. Muslims arrived, Catholicism was banned and the Orthodox Church was restored. Therefore both the Greek and the Turkish elements coexisted or, at least, they could each practice their preferred religion.

Britain took over the administration of Cyprus in 1878, though the island remained part of the Ottoman Empire. The Empire was on its last legs, so Britain helped it because a sudden collapse of Turkey would have been catastrophic for the Eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus was also a convenient point to harbour gun boats and Britain was keen on gun boats.

In the Great War, Turkey sided with Germany and Peter O'Toole blew up Turkish trains. Since Britain was on the winning side, it annexed Cyprus and, in 1923, Turkey renounced all rights to the island. This is worth repeating, all rights to Cyprus were renounced, things like this happen when you go to war and lose, otherwise Elizabeth II would now be Queen of Connecticut.

Two years later, Cyprus became a Crown Colony which gave its citizens certain privileges, such as the right to hold a British passport (London has a sizeable Cypriot community) and the protection of the Royal Navy.

Cyprus won independence from Britain in 1960. The population was split 70/30, Greek and Turkish ethnicity and a new constitution recognised this. In the 1950s there had been group called EOKA (which was comprised either of 'terrorists' or 'freedom fighters', depending which end of the gun you were at) which attacked the British occupying forces. EOKA's aim was union with Greece, which did not go down well with the sizeable Turkish minority.