Opposition Parties' Initiative Failed Because of Armenian MP's Statements: Paper

"The four non-ruling parliamentary parties' initiative to apply to the Ethics Committee of Senior Officials  against Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasyan, in fact, failed," reports local daily Haykakan Zhamanak. 

The newspaper reports that this occurred after Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF-D) MP Armen Rustamyan in parliament yesterday recalled that Tovasyan (pictured) said to the four parliamentary factions (ARF-D, Heritage Party, Armenian National Congress, and Prosperous Armenia Party)"they're making a mistake"(said in crude and vulgar language) regarding the parties' intention to make a motion of no confidence against the government, then said, "If, for example, we say, 'You're making a mistake, chatlakh' , don't get offended."

Later, speaking to reporters, Rustamyan, explained that chatlakh (colloquially understood as "sleaze") means "cracked" or a "rift" in the Stepan Malkhasyan explanatory dictionary. The newspaper notes that the explanation is incomplete: according to the same dictionary, chatlakh also refers to a female sexual organ. 

"The four parties last week decided to jointly appeal to the Ethics Committee of Senior Officials conjunct to the RA president. Yesterday, ahead of the special session, the four parties agreed that head of the ARF-D faction Armen Rustamyan would say that they, the four , are asking that Tovmasyan apologize on Wednesday (during the question-and-answer period with the government); otherwise, they'll appeal to the Committee. Rustamyan, however, didn't manage to say that. 

"Nevertheless, it's clear that if the 4 parties now appeal to the Ethics Committee, Hrayr Tovmasyan will do the same. Thus, the decision was cancelled," reports the paper.