Member of Turkey’s oppositional People’s Democratic Party, Turkish-Armenian MP Garo Pailan has mocked “Turkish officials with moustaches”.

In his speech during a discussion on the draft budget in the Turkish parliament, Pailan criticized the fact that all the members of the budgetary committee are men and that most of the officials are growing moustaches in order to get on Erdogan’s good side.

“The State you call a State is a State of men. Besides this, there is another development that has been unfolding over the past two years-the country is turning into a country of people with similar moustaches. It seems as though people wishing to maintain their positions are forced to grow moustaches. If we take a look at the picture two years ago, officials with moustaches made up only 5-10%. Now 90-95% of officials have moustaches. A moustache is viewed as a symbol of consolidation of forces,” Pailan said, reported ermenihaber.am.

Earlier, Associated Press had conducted a small investigation and clarified that Turkish ministers are growing moustaches upon the advice of President Erdogan. According to the news agency, most of the members of the Turkish cabinet were shaven a year ago, but now, only three of the 27 Turkish ministers are shaven. One of the ministers told Associated Press that some high-ranking officials have started growing moustaches upon Erdogan’s advice. Some analysts say this is not a coincidence since we are dealing with a country where facial hair has been of political significance for a long time now. By copying the style of the President, it seems as though Erdogan’s supporters and the members of the ruling party are trying to adapt to his team.