The Russians weren't operating SU-24s near Turkey thinking they were a match for NATO F-16s, so how could they be provocative?

It's almost as if the chuckleheads out there are gloating that an F-16 bested an SU-24:

"Russian 'antique' falls to tricked-out F16s".

Everyone who knows anything knows the old swept-wing SU-24 is long obsolete but is still useful for low altitude ground operations. It's not like Russia committed its very best resources to this conflict, only the appropriate ones. These aircraft were not threatening to Turkey.

And that's the whole point. The Russian jets were operating against Turkish opponents of the Syrian regime on the ground inside Syria, and trigger-happy Turkey didn't like it.

Russia to move S-300/400 missile system to Syria: deadly to F-16 iterations operated by Turkey

Reported here and here:

'One S-300 battery is a handful, but several such systems networked together into an integrated air defense system is a nearly insurmountable challenge for most fourth-generation fighters like the F-16 or F-15. As one senior U.S. Marine Corps aviator told me, the S-300 series is deadly. “A complete game changer for all fourth-gen aircraft [like the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18]. That thing is a beast and you don’t want to get near it,” he said.'