Let’s take a look at the finances of the sons of Galoust Sahakyan, leader of the parliamentary faction of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia.

Sahakyan can always be spotted in front of the press cameras, espousing the government’s position on this or that issue. Lately, he’s been busy defending the government’s proposal to raise the minimum wage by 2,500 AMD per month.

So what about Galoust Sahakyan’s sons who serve in the upper echelons of government?

Arman Sahakyan heads the Department of Management at the State Property registry. In 2011, he declared annual revenues of 24.394 million AMD, of which 22.2 million was rental income. The balance was his salary. As of the end of the year, he had 95 million AMD in the bank.

Just two years ago, in 2009, the young government official declared a mere 3.323 million AMD in bank deposits.

Tigran Sahakyan, a Deputy Minister of Health, declared revenues of 29.7 million AMD for 2011 - 2.8 million was in the form of wages and the rest was rental income.

The deputy minister started 2011 with 19 million in the bank, rising to 43.7 million by year’s end.

We can only guess if Arman and Tigran can survive on the 35,000 monthly minimum wage so fervently defended as “fair” by their father.