Councillor Sarkis Yedelian was elected as an Independent Councillor for the City of Ryde Council on Saturday 27 March 2004.

Yedelian was elected on a platform on delivering a fresh approach to dealing with Council issues, and bringing accountability to City of Ryde.

He has been living in the City of Ryde since 1984. He migrated to Sydney in 1979, from Beirut, Lebanon.  Sarkis (of Armenian ancestry) became acutely aware of the paucity in electronic and print media interconnecting the multicultural communities, and quickly set about improving communication and awareness in the spirit of multiculturalism and integration amongst this group within mainstream Australia .

In 1980, he, along with a few others, founded the "Armenia Weekly" (first monthly) magazine and served on it's Editorial Board for many years. In 1982, he started the Armenian Community Radio Hour at 2NSB-FM and served as its coordinator and anchor till 1990. In 1994, with a group of other volunteers, Sarkis established Community TV Sydney CH31 with the intention of producing programs for Sydney's culturally-diverse non-English speaking communities.  Driven by the need for wider access and equity, as Chairman of the Programming Council of Community TV Sydney he led the way for young film-makers to have their say and air their production on Channel 31.

Since 1994, Sarkis has been President of Armenian TV Sydney Inc.  He has transformed both his workplace and personal residence into a state of the art TV production studio and produced, free of charge, over 1000 hours of community TV programs for Sydney's Armenian and broader culturally-diverse community. This work has been completely voluntary, without any government support, and has involved no less than 10-12 hours each week (http://armtv.tripod.com).  In this capacity, Sarkis has also recorded over 35 hours of video testimonies of survivors of the Armenian Genocide.  Sarkis has also served in a voluntary capacity as Director and Board Member at Community TV Sydney CH31 (1995-2004) and Programming Council Chairman at Community TV Sydney CH31 (1995-2004). He has voluntarily trained young journalists, video producers and camera operators.

His election as an Independent Councillor, represented the first elected Councilor in Australia of Armenian ancestry and one of first independent Councilors of Ryde born overseas with a culturally diverse background.  He actively encouraged other migrants at all levels to participate in the everyday public life of the communities of Greater Ryde and the Lower North Shore.  In Ryde City, he actively encourages the integration and interaction of Australians with immigrants from Indonesia, Korea, Lebanon, India, Palestine, Armenia and other places. He helped them to form the "Ryde Multicultural Centre Inc.", and secured a meeting place for them via the support of local businesses and the Ryde Council. In cooperation of fellow Councillors, he plays  a key leadership role in the  "Community Harmony Reference Group" which advises Council on all multicultural issues.  His fluency in 5 separate languages has helped him communicating without difficulty with many different communities. His activities beyond the specific include his voluntary work for the State Emergency Service of Ryde.

During the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, Mr. Yedelian voluntarily assisted the Armenian Paralympics Team. He provided free media coverage and video/internet connectivity and service, particularly for the paraplegic weightlifting and sailing team.  For this he was recognized with a Certificate of Appreciation from the President of Armenian Olympic Committee.

On 27 October 2007 Sarkis received “Community service Award" from Armenian Chamber of Commerce of Australia.

He is an active member of The Armenian Community and Sydney's Community TV circles. He is also the founding member and the president of Armenian TV Sydney Incorporated. Established in 1994, it is the first and remains the only Armenian TV broadcast service in Australia run entirely by volunteers, producing  broadcasting and other  information materials for Sydney's culturally diverse  Communities.

Sarkis is the first  and only Councillor elected in Australia of Armenian ancestry. Clr. Yedelian  speaks five languages. According to the last census 37% of Ryde people born overseas, and 34% speak another language at home. The most commonly  spoken  languages in 2001 were Cantonese, followed by Italian, Mandarin, Korean, Armenian, Arabic and Greek.

He is member of many community Organisations and Clubs.

He was elected as Deputy Mayor on 11th of September 2007.

Clr. Yedelian is Member of the following Council Committees;
 - Development Committee (Deputy Chairperson)
 - City of Ryde Bicycle Advisory Committee
 - Cities for Climate Protection Committee
 - Lane Cove Tunnel. Ryde Consultative Working Party 

 - Community Harmony Reference Group

He represented Ryde Council in the following conferences.

 - Local Government Association (LGA)  of NSW.  2004  Armidale, 2005 Mudgee, 2006 Blue Mountains and 2007 Coffs Harbour.

-   Australian Local Government Association (ALGA). 2004 and 2006 Canberra, ACT.