Of the eleven women MP’s in the RA National Assembly, Hermineh Naghdalyan is by far the richest.

According to her 2009 financial disclosure statement, that all members of the parliament must submit, she had revenues totaling some 824 million AMD and $466,000.  The average salary of an Armenian MP is 3.780 million AMD.

When he asked her about all this money, MP Naghdalyan has boasted, “Well, at least I’ve disclosed what I have, unlike some others.”

I then asked the source of such hefty revenues given that the RA Constitution prohibits MP’s from engaging in outside business operations.

“This is the imperfection in our law. Any loans or credits I receive, and which I’ll have to return some day, are counted as revenues. But expenses or loan payments are deducted.”

MP Naghdalyan added that a large portion of these revenues are in the form of loans taken out on various credit cards. The money, she claims, is invested in various family businesses, to pay wages and other miscellaneous costs.

The family owns a basalt and granite production facility in Sisian as well as a stone quarry and some 30 cargo trucks to haul it in.

 Sisian residents also say that the family owns the Israyel Ori Restaurant next to the town’s police headquarters.

MP Naghdalyan denies that the restaurant belongs to her and argues that while the family owns several commercial enterprises she is not involved.

Her husband is Davit Beglaryan, Head of the Etchmiadzin Tax Service.

When I asked her what she thought about so many businessmen sitting in the parliament, MP> Naghdalyan said that many are more involved in their businesses than legislative affairs.

“It’s a political decision problem. Recently, there has been talk of decreasing the number of MP’s engaged in business as much as possible. I think this another process that must take place on the road to democratic governance.”

However, she added that the inclusion of so many businessmen ion the parliament wasn’t necessarily a bad thing at the time.

“In fact, you can argue that it had some positive spin-off because they all brought their business acumen to the chamber when drafting legislation. They analyze things more deeply.”

When I asked her for some specific instances where MP’s engaged in outside business interests positively contributed to the drafting of modifications to the law, given that most never show up for parliamentary sessions and debates, she could only reply that this was her personal observation.