Local Armenians Hear Echoes of History : Reaction: Southland community plans a fund-raising drive. Turkish atrocities of 1915 are recalled.

For students at the Holy Martyrs Armenian School in Encino, there is no more important current events lesson than the one they are learning now: The violence against Armenians in Soviet Azerbaijan echoes the sad stories passed down through generations.

“Even the little kids realize that this is a very serious situation,” said Levon Kasparian, vice principal of a school for both elementary and secondary students. “Some of the terms being used-- pogrom, genocide , massacre --these words are not foreign to Armenians.

“ ‘Never again’ is the motto of the day. No more massacres for our nation--this is being ingrained in every child here,” he added.

But what does it take?

As Armenians pick up arms in their historic homeland, Armenians here are trying to figure out how to help. Some, especially the young, are stirred by dreams of returning to settle old scores and achieve independence. And leaders of Southern California’s Armenian community, estimated to number more than 200,000, are planning to launch a fund-raising drive this weekend to provide medical supplies and relief for refugees.

A big part of the battle, however, is rhetorical. Violence in Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan have Armenians here escalating their perennial crusade over the world’s perception of their tragic history.

That is why, for example, when “World News Tonight” botched a bit of history about the Nagorno-Karabakh region this week, ABC’s switchboard lit up with calls from angry Armenians. The next night, anchorman Peter Jennings issued a clarification.

It is also why Armenians say they are bothered by frequent media references to “Christian Armenians” and “Muslim Azerbaijanis.” The terms may be accurate but, many say, they oversimplify a complex, sensitive history.

For Armenians, reports of mob beatings, shootings and even burnings of Armenians in Azerbaijan recall Turkish atrocities of 75 years ago. “It is all incredibly reminiscent of 1915,” said Garen Yeghparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee, based in Glendale.

Armenians remember 1915 as the start of a genocide in which Turks killed 1.5 million Armenians and drove another 1 million from the historic Armenian homeland that dates back 2,500 years. Turkish authorities object to the term genocide and the numbers, and say the deaths were a product of a civil war in which both Turks and Armenians perished.

Yeghparian says the violence is not driven by religious conflict between Christians and Muslims. Armenians in diaspora, he said, have had relatively good relationships with Arab and Iranian Muslims, for example.

Rather, the Armenians fear the violence is a resurgence of pan-Turanism, a movement conceived in the late 19th Century that sought to unite Turanian-speaking peoples, which includes both Turks and Azerbaijanis.

Mehmet Ecre, consul general of the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles, denied the charges. Pan-Turanism, he said, is a doctrine that became obsolete long ago. He described the tension between Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan as “an internal affair of the Soviet Union.”

Yeghparian says Armenians’ ultimate objective is for an independent Armenian republic. In the short term, the Armenian National Committee favors the intervention of Soviet peacekeeping forces.

Ironically, the Soviet role also echoes Armenian history. After centuries of occupation by Turks and Russians, Armenians achieved an independent republic in 1918 in the chaotic aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution. With Turkish hostility mounting, Armenia then signed a treaty to become a Soviet republic. Russian rulers, Armenians contend, have long been the lesser of two evils.