Earthquakes of magnitude about 6 will be repeated in the area of Turkey and Syria within a few days or even weeks, Peter Shebalin, director of the Institute of Earthquake Forecasting Theory and Mathematical Geophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti.

"It is highly probable that earthquakes of great strength, with a magnitude of about 6, will be repeated within a few days, maybe even a few weeks," Shebalin said.

"What happened today is much stronger than the Spitak earthquake," Shebalin added. He said serious earthquake damage in Armenia was due to an underestimation of seismic hazards during construction. "The old buildings were not designed for an earthquake of such magnitude, so there was such destruction, but this earthquake tonight and during the day is an earthquake of greater magnitude than it was in Spitak," Shebalin explained.

The catastrophic earthquake occurred on December 7, 1988 in Armenia. A series of earth tremors in 30 seconds almost destroyed the city of Spitak and caused severe damage to the cities of Leninakan (now Gyumri), Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and Stepanavan. As a result of the natural disaster, according to official data, 25 thousand people were killed, 140 thousand became disabled and 514 thousand people lost their homes.