Hundreds of thousands of people clutching tulips, carnations and daffodils climbed a hill in Armenia's capital today to lay wreaths and remember the 1.5 million they say were killed 90 years ago in Ottoman Turkey.
From the top the crowds could see the heights of Mount Ararat now in eastern Turkey, the region where Armenia says its people were slaughtered in a deliberate genocide during the chaos surrounding the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.
The mountain is a potent symbol for the Christian nation but it lies out of reach across a fortified frontier. Local families mixed with members of Armenia's diaspora, who had flown from Europe and the United States to remember friends and relatives who had died between 1915 and 1923.
"I am happy that I, my husband and my two sons are here in Yerevan today. A large part of my husband's family died in the genocide," said Rubina Peroomian, a 66-year-old teacher from Los Angeles.
Armenia wants the world - and Turkey - to admit that what happened was genocide. Turkey denies this, saying Armenians were among many victims of a partisan war that also claimed many Muslim Turkish lives.
Turkey's October 3rd start date for European Union entry talks has ratcheted the argument up the political agenda.
France in particular, home to an influential, 400,000-strong Armenian community, has promised to seek a Turkish admission of genocide.