Turkey - US relations brink of crisis - Obama urges NO to US Congress

The Obama administration is urging Congress to hold off on a resolution declaring the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians as "genocide."

The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee was scheduled to vote on the resolution Thursday and appeared likely to endorse it.

But White House spokesman Mike Hammer said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had spoken with the committee's chairman, Democratic Rep. Howard Berman, on Wednesday and indicated that such a vote would jeopardize reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia.

The move breaks a campaign promise by President Barack Obama to brand the killings as "genocide."

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