Russia will not involve its 102nd military base in Armenia in the Russian-Turkish conflict, Stepan Safaryan, the head of the Armenian Institute for International Security, has told ArmInfo.
"At the moment, the military base defends the air borders and monitors the situation in the Middle East. As regards Syria, Russia has enough capacities in that country to resist the Turkish provocations and to deliver strikes against the terrorists' targets," he says. Safaryan thinks that by downing the Russian Su-24, Ankara has made a mistake, which will result in deterioration of the Russian-Turkish relations in the economic and humanitarian areas. "In addition, Russia has already stated that Turkey defends the Islamic State militants and this may result in suspension of a number of joint projects and weakening of Turkish companies' positions on the Russian market. So, an indirect war may break out and Russia may resort to the help of Kurdish movements and economic pressure," he says.
The expert thinks that Turkey may destabilize the situation in the South Caucasus and use Azerbaijan to escalate the tension along the line of contact with the Nagorno-Karabakh troops. "Artsakh is under potential threat now but it is obvious that Baku does not want to interfere in the conflict and will try to avoid hazardous situations. But if the Azerbaijani authorities start anti-Russian steps, they will come across serious problems," he says.
To note, the Russian Su-24 aircraft was downed by a Turkish F-16 fighting falcon over Syrian territory. The plane was attacked by an air-to- air missile. According to the Defense Ministry, the plane was at the height of 6,000 meters when attacked. President Vladimir Putin called it a "stab in the back" by the supporters of terrorists. Both pilots were able to parachute out of the plane before it crashed. One of them was killed while landing, the second was saved by the Syrian security forces, by unconfirmed data. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov cancelled his visit to Turkey. Experts think that Moscow will suspend all the joint business projects with Ankara, including construction of the Turkish Stream and the first nuclear power plant in Turkey.