YEREVAN, July 11 (RIA Novosti) - The United States welcomes Armenian authorities' efforts to normalize relations with Turkey, a U.S. deputy secretary of state said Saturday.

James Steinberg, who is currently on an official visit to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, said that the current progress in Armenian-Turkish relations should proceed regardless of other issues, including the issue of the Nagorny Karabakh.

Armenia and Turkey have had no diplomatic relations since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. However, they agreed to a "roadmap" to normalize their relations under Swiss mediation in April this year.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for Azerbaijan following a bloody conflict over Nagorny Karabakh. Over 35,000 people died in fighting over the area in the early 1990s before a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Nagorny Karabakh technically remains part of Azerbaijan, but has its own de facto government.