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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 [AM] 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' [said likewise in a crude manner], 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[‘s office]. Yesterday, ahead of the special [parliamentary] session, the four parties agreed that head of the ARF-D faction Armen Rustamyan would say that they, the four [parties], 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.