DEMOCRACY IN ARMENIA TOPS MISSION GROUP'S REGIONAL LEADER TO HEAD TWO-YEAR PROJECT.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

GLENDALE - During his 1 1/2 years as the regional head of the Armenian National Committee of America, Alex Sardar has had plenty of experience organizing grass-roots efforts and lobbying legislators on key issues.

This month, he will take his experience to Armenia, where he will work on a two-year democracy-building project sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

``A big challenge right now in a country like Armenia is to show people how democracy works on the ground,'' said Sardar, who will work to instill democratic values in the citizenry and the media.

Sardar is scheduled to depart for Armenia on April 14. The ANC is conducting a nationwide search for his successor.

USAID's goals in Armenia, according to the organization's Web site, are to build programs that would educate citizens on their rights and responsibilities, as well as to ensure governmental procedures that encourage public input and a legal system that is independent and functioning.

A former member of the Soviet Union, Armenia won independence in a referendum in 1991. Ever since, the country has been struggling to build a democracy and private enterprise amid ``declining living standards, crumbling public services and endemic corruption,'' according to USAID.

Despite Armenia's current problems, Sardar, who will be working with a team from the United States in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, is optimistic about its future.

``Armenia is actually one of the most stable democracies in the region,'' he said, noting that it has had two presidents since its independence.

``For a country that has been independent for a little over a decade, Armenia has made great strides to where it can stand as a model (for the region.)''

Sardar first became involved with the ANC through an internship at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., where his cousin was also an intern.

``The level to which he has taken the office is going to be hard to follow,'' said Chris Hekimian, government affairs director for the Washington office of the ANC. ``I kind of feel bad for whoever is going to fill his spot.''

As the Western Region Office director, Hekimian said, Sardar was responsible for mobilizing Armenian-Americans not just in California, but in the entire Western United States.

``He is in touch and travels to Armenian communities throughout the Western region,'' he said.

Steve Dadaian, chairman of the board of directors of the Western region ANC, said Sardar played an instrumental role in California signing a trade agreement with Armenia last year.

Dadaian said Sardar has also taken a delegation of local legislators to Armenia to show them the country, and has organized conferences for educators to learn about the Armenian Genocide in the context of human rights.

``He has done a very good job. He has done an extraordinary job,'' said Dadaian.

Born in Iran, the Glendale resident came to this country when he was 15, learned English here - but speaks fluent Armenian - and graduated from Hoover High School. He went on to the University of California at Berkeley to earn an undergraduate degree in literature and later earned a master's degree in international relations from American University.

Sardar's great-grandparents perished in the Armenian Genocide - the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in the early part of the 1900s - when his family fled to Iran.

``As an Armenian,'' he said, ``it's a lifetime opportunity to go back where my ancestors came from and help out and realize their dreams.''

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Alex Sardar is heading up a new mission to help build democracy in Armenia.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer