The Armavir governor’s office has announced that the principal of the Sardarapat secondary school in Armenia’s Armavir region has been dismissed from her position due to violations of work duties, responding to reports saying she was removed because of the Artsakh flag.
The regional administration denied those claims, emphasizing that the published information does not correspond to reality and reflects a clear attempt to divert attention from the actual issue.
“The principal of the Sardarapat Secondary School state non-commercial organization was dismissed for violating certain work responsibilities, which were recently recorded by Armenia’s Education Inspectorate,” the statement said.
The governor’s office outlined the inspection and legal procedures carried out in order to dispel possible doubts.
According to the information provided, under the annual inspection program for 2026 approved by the council of Armenia’s Education Inspectorate on November 25, 2025, ten state non-commercial organizations under the Armavir governor’s office were included, namely: “Araks Secondary School,” “Arevashat Secondary School,” “Dasht Secondary School,” “Haytag H. Karapetyan Secondary School,” “Norakert Secondary School,” “Nor Armavir Secondary School,” “Jrarbi Secondary School,” “Vagharshapat Kh. Abovyan No. 4 Basic School,” “Vagharshapat Vahan Rshtuni No. 11 Basic School,” and “Sardarapat Secondary School.”
It was noted that, according to a letter dated March 25, 2026, based on an order issued on February 24, 2026, an inspection was conducted at the Sardarapat Secondary School to monitor compliance with legislation regulating the education sector. The same letter also presented the March 20, 2026 report on inspection results, as well as an order outlining instructions for the principal to eliminate the identified violations.
By official letters dated March 26, 2026, based on Article 226 of Armenia’s Labor Code, the principal was required to provide a written explanation within three days regarding violations recorded in several subpoints of the inspection report.
“The violations concerned breaches in procedures for filling vacant teaching positions, failure to announce required competitions, failure to properly organize distance learning for certain students, as well as irregularities in the election of the parent council chair and the recording of their participation in the pedagogical council. The principal did not accept the violations recorded in the report in her explanation,” the statement said.
Based on these grounds, applying the relevant articles of the Labor Code, taking into account official correspondence and the principal’s explanations, and due to a loss of trust, Armavir governor’s March 30, 2026 decision dismissed Karine Smbatyan from her position and terminated her employment contract signed on July 7, 2021.
The decision was published on the official website of the governor’s office.
Karine Smbatyan had earlier written on Facebook: “Mr. Governor, you may remove me from office, but you cannot remove patriotism from my heart. You may order the flag taken down, but you cannot erase our heroes’ signatures from our souls.”
