Grieving Armenians Vow to Aid Homeland : Rallies: Thousands of immigrants from the war-torn republic show solidarity at demonstrations, at fund-raisers and in the classroom.

Raising clenched right fists to signal solidarity, their eyes fixed on the red, blue and orange Armenian flag by the podium, the 2,500 Armenians who rallied in Hollywood on Sunday solemnly vowed to defend their homeland with their lives.

The people had come from as far as Chicago and Texas. Many wore lapel ribbons in memory of relatives killed in the conflict under way in the Soviet Union.

They filled money baskets in minutes.

They picked up thousands of unsigned letters handed out by volunteers and promised to mail them to their congressmen. And they signed petitions without bothering to read them.

“We are a peace-loving people, and we want peace right now,” Archbishop Datev Sarkissian, Western prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church, told the outdoor rally at Alex Pibilos Armenian School.

“But peace cannot come at the expense of our people and our national rights,” he warned, as the audience exploded in applause. “Justice for our people!” Sarkissian cried. “Justice for Armenia! Do not underestimate our people’s fight for honor, freedom and self-determination!”

The rally--organized by the Armenian National Committee, a local political group--kicked off a fund-raising campaign to help Soviet Armenia in its war with the neighboring republic of Azerbaijan.

The funds will be used to provide medical supplies, clothing and shelter for the tens of thousands of Armenian refugees who arrived in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, last week, organizers said.

It was the largest so far in a string of demonstrations by the 350,000 Armenians believed to be living in Southern California.

For days, they had heard and read news reports of one tragedy after another: Armenians thrown from balconies and massacred in Azerbaijan; Armenians evacuated from their villages by the Red Army; Armenian militia members fighting and dying along the Azerbaijan border.

On Sunday, as they stood before their flag, in one voice they promised to defend Armenia to the end.

“We are angry because our people are being killed again for the sole reason of being Armenians,” said ANC spokesman Berdj Karapetian. “We are angry at our president, George Bush, for not denouncing the massacres. We are angry at (Soviet President Mikhail S.) Gorbachev for downplaying the whole thing for geopolitical reasons.

“It’s 1915 being repeated all over again,” he said, referring to the genocide in Turkey that killed two-thirds of the Armenians, “and nobody’s stopping it.”

The fervor of support Sunday was typical of recent gatherings in the local Armenian community.

In Glendale’s Maple Park--where as many as 50 Armenian refugees meet daily at the picnic tables to play checkers, the Armenian card game Shagma , and the Russian board game Shashki --the members of the mostly male group have been overtaken by a feeling of despair.

On Friday, for example, only a handful were in the mood to play games. The others spent hours talking about their homeland, asking endless unanswered questions.

“Why are they killing Armenians?” “Why are they driving us out of our villages?” “Why can’t the massacres be stopped?” “Why us, again?”

At local Armenian schools, officials were busy organizing fund-raisers and promoting letter-writing campaigns asking U.S. officials for help.

“The students are very hotblooded,” said Viken Balian, 50, the principal of Mesrobian Armenian School in Pico Rivera. “They say, ‘Why don’t we go to Armenia and fight to defend our brothers and sisters?’

“We tell them that we understand their frustration, but things have to be done in a proper order and, for the time being, that option is premature.”

In an Armenian history class at Glendale Community College on Friday morning, an emotional discussion followed the showing of a videotape of the latest news clips of the conflict.

“I can’t believe we have to sit here and watch our people getting crushed by those filthy barbarians,” snapped Derek Azoo, 18, one of 37 Armenian students in the 40-member class.

“We have tried to be diplomatic, but it doesn’t work,” added student Stepan Boyajian, 18, with icy determination. “Fighting is the only solution at this point.”

Their instructor asked his students how many of them would fight for their homeland. Almost every hand went up.

That was the response he expected, said Prof. Levon Marashlian. The night before, Marashlian had been among 1,500 people who met in the basement of St. Mary’s Armenian Church in Glendale to hear community leaders address the crisis.

A tense silence permeated the packed auditorium as John Kossakian, managing editor of the local Armenian newspaper Asbarez, reported on the fighting.

Many stared at the floor, slowly shaking their heads. Others covered their eyes with their hands to hide the pain. Outside, a group of smokers paced nervously.

Kossakian spoke of the need to send aid to Armenia, to organize mass demonstrations and to ask U.S. leaders to put pressure on their Soviet counterparts to end the violence.

“We have to get huge crowds, or it’s not worth it,” he said in Armenian.

There was thundering applause.

“Why don’t we send arms to Armenia?” a man shouted from the back of the room.

“Why don’t we all go back to Armenia to help our brothers and sisters?” another cried.

Arms smuggling is illegal and the borders are closed, Kossakian replied.

“We want to do more!” the men and women shouted back. “We have to do more!”