White House spokesman Robert Gibbs suggested the administration was trying to buy time for Turkey's parliament to act. In October, Turkey and Armenia signed Protocols for normalization of relations, but Turkey has yet to ratify it, AP reported.

"Our focus is on continuing to make progress on an issue that has, for almost 100 years, divided two countries," Gibbs said. "Through some very tough diplomatic work by Secretary Clinton, we've made progress. We're on the cusp of normalization."