Armenians Mark Independence : History: About 2,000 people celebrate the end of Turkish domination in 1918 and the breakaway from Soviet rule in 1991.

Dancing to the fast-paced tunes of their homeland, dozens of Armenian Americans clapped, twirled and kicked up their heels Sunday to celebrate the anniversary of two brief years of freedom in their country’s modern history: 1918 to 1920.

Those years, some say, symbolize the dogged determination and free spirit of an often persecuted ethnic group, which first broke away from present-day Turkey after World War I, then lost its independence to the former Soviet Union and regained independence in 1991.

“May 28, 1918, is the date Armenians finally got out of the claws of Turkey,” said Hagop Krikorian, 23, of Woodland Hills. “If it weren’t for the 1918 independence, there wouldn’t be a 1991 independence.

“Freedom is . . . I don’t know the word. It’s different when you have freedom.”

Of the 2,000 people who gathered Sunday on the small campus of an Armenian school in North Hills, many were at least two generations removed from the 1918 independence effort but were nonetheless moved by the spirit of Armenian Independence Day.

“When you have a certain national pride, it really is frustrating to not have your national independence and be under foreign rule,” said Viken Hovsepian, a board member for the Glendale-based Armenian National Committee. “Obviously, Armenians were elated by the independence gained in 1991. But the mission to attain full independence is still in process.”

In 1991, Armenians voted overwhelmingly to break away from the dying Soviet Union after more than 70 years of domination. But freedom, many said, has left the country struggling to survive economically.

Over the course of its history, Armenia seemed to be in the hands of just about every one of its neighbors: the Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Romans, and the Soviets. In 1918, Armenia emerged from a devastating genocide of its people by the Ottoman Turks and created an independent republic.

An estimated 1.5 million people were killed from 1915 to 1918, yet some Armenians say they are still waiting for Turkey to officially acknowledge the genocide and compensate the victims’ families.

“I’m sad, even now,” said Lucine Danayan, a 72-year-old retired teacher whose parents reportedly lied about their Armenian heritage and avoided speaking the language in order to escape Turkey alive.

More than 100 of her parents’ relatives, she said, were exterminated by the Turks, leading to the overwhelming grief that later killed her father.

“Our story is, every night my mama was crying,” Danayan said. “She told me, ‘My little girl, we had this, this and this, and now we don’t have anything.’

“America is a good country, but you like your motherland better than everything.”