The Islamic State has caused a huge damage to civilization over the past year of its activity and aims to cleanse the region of Christians, experts of Arabic studies Sargis Grigoryan and Armen Petrosyan told a press conference today.

The Islamic State has managed to expand the areas under in control in Iraq and Syria. This is a new reality for the world, since ISIS has set a new benchmark for radicals. The latters’ activity will now serve the Islamic State.

Sargis Grigoryan said “immediately after the Islamic State was proclaimed, a number of Islamist structures in the Muslim world vowed their loyalty to the Caliph.  This was followed by establishment of vilayets in areas controlled by those organizations.

“At this point there are about 35 vilayets in different parts of the Muslim world – from North Africa to Pakistan,” he said.

The last announcement was about the creation of a vilayet in the Caucasus. According to the expert, this means “IS has far-reaching plans connected with this stricture in the region. The Islamic organizations in the Caucasus will receive military, financial and other assistance from the Islamic State.”

“I think the radical Islamist trends will further intensify, as the radical Islamic groups need to prove they are worth being “administrative units” of ISIS,” Grigoryan said.

Armen Petrosyan spoke about the way different regional players use the IS factor for their geopolitical interests. “If there is any provocation in the Caucasus, i.e. the South of Russia, it will be enough for the world to speak about the reinforcement of ISIS positions in Russia,” he said.

“This will mean a serious blow to Russia, which will make the country redirect a huge portion of its resources from Ukraine to the Caucasus,” Petrosyan added.

He said the developments are even more alarming, considering that there are a great number of Armenians living in those regions.