VOMA prepares to replace Srbazan's gang

While the Armenian authorities are fighting terrorists and trying to purge the country of radical revanchism, the organization for the training of young terrorists VOMA continues its activities. A shift is being prepared to replace those who will be sent to prison.

"You can't move everyone," its leader Vova Vartanov thinks with a grin, outlining the work plan for the summer. Young people are on vacation and it's time to teach them, well, for example, to fire a mortar. Indeed, why not teach ordinary Gyumri residents how to handle such weapons?  

VOMA calls itself a school of survival, but its methods and goals do not match the stated ones. It would be understandable if civilians were taught self-defense and trained to survive natural disasters or environments. But these people are taught to attack and kill, not defend themselves. I wonder where in their lives they might encounter a mortar so that they need the skills to handle it?

"The mortar is the first touch. The first acquaintance with artillery!. This is how the "teachings" are romantically described in the VOMA Telegram channel. A lot of beautiful words and a promise that "the real courses are ahead."

VOMA claims that it is not building an army, but "creating a civil society that knows how to defend itself." To put it less pompously, the organization prepares society for terrorist and sabotage activities. And, given the internal political processes in Armenia, it is not a fact that terrorist attacks and sabotage will be directed only at an external enemy.

The very fact that a certain public organization has serious weapons and trains civilians to handle them should cause concern to the Armenian authorities. There are civil defense structures, and there is a Ministry of Defense. If it is not a hunting rifle or a gas pistol, these structures should be responsible for armament issues. And anyone should not have the right to gather people and teach them how to fire a mortar. Moreover, it should be alarming if these dubious organizations exist at the expense of external financing and gather young people around them.

Speaking of financing. After the Second Karabakh War, financial inflows to VOMA began to dwindle. The Diaspora that fed the organization became convinced that it was of little use, and began to reduce feeding. In the end, it stopped altogether, and now VOMA is forced to turn to revanchists and other sympathizers with a request for help, to issue a bank account on social networks and extend a hand. Oh, but there were times when VOMA set up branches all over the world, where Armenians were clustered, and turned over hundreds of millions of dollars.

But everything ends sometime. The diaspora's hopes for the "brave scout" Vova Vartanov have also ended. In order to breed noodle lovers for money, VOMA executives came up with the Gmbet project, which provides for the creation of an "inexpensive and effective" defense line along the conditional border with Azerbaijan. "Gmbet" is a kind of structure made of car tires, sandbags, sleepers and other debris. But there were a lot of noodle lovers in Armenia and the Diaspora, and money went out from fools who expected that a pyramid of tires would be able to protect the Armenian borders. What is especially funny is that those who transferred large donations were given a special honor - their name was given in absentia to some "gbet".

To add to its credibility, VOMA said it was cooperating with the Ministry of Defense. When this news reached the Ministry of Defense, the Defense Department issued a rebuttal and accused Vova of fraud. The Defense Ministry stated that the Armenian army does not need donations, besides, there is no "second line of defense" on the border, as there are no "gbets" named after someone.

In theory, the people who invested their blood dramas in Vova should have found him and put him on the barrel of the very mortar he teaches their children to shoot. But no one did it. Probably, the halo of the "scout hero" hovering around the image of Vartanov since the First Karabakh War is blinding.

Let's try to imagine that someone would have announced a collection of money for the construction of something similar on our border. Would there be many willing to finance it? First of all, people would ask themselves, does anyone have the right to build defense lines? That would be a very valid question. Surprisingly, it did not occur to the sponsors of the crazy idea of the fraudster Vartanov.

In a normal state, no one can create fortifications on the state border, bypassing the Ministry of Defense. No one has the right to organize exercises for civilians using real military weapons. We are not talking about the fact that these real military weapons should be seized from a public organization with murky goals. Because one day all these trained citizens may take up arms on the side of the revanchist opposition.

Nikol Pashinyan, who is trying to establish order in his country, has a very difficult task. You can sympathize with him.