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The staff members of the Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after Alexander Spendiarian are against Nazeni Gharibyan, acting culture minister of Armenia, to serve as the Chairwoman of the Management Board at the Opera Theatre. They called for a working meeting of the employees on May 27 to which the members of the Management Board are invited as well.

To note, on May 24, the collegiate executive body of the Opera Theatre elected Gharibyan as the new Chairwoman of the Management Board. According the statement released on the Opera Facebook page, the employees have “well-ground and fair disagreement to the result of the election.”

The news came on the day when Constantine Orbelian, Artistic Director of the Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet filed a lawsuit against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Nazeni Gharibyan. Orbelian was dismissed from the post on March 28 pursuant to decision by acting Minister Gharibyan. Gharibyan justified her decision with the fact that the Opera theatre director cannot be engaged in other paid activities except scientific, pedagogical, and creative work, while Orbelian served as the Opera director combining the post with the position of the artistic director. Gharibyan clarified that maintaining the two posts simultaneously was unlawful since position of the artistic director was not a creative but a managerial post.