Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hopes that 2023 will be a breakthrough year for normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"I hope that 2023 will be a year of breakthrough in the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. At any rate, we are counting on it," he said at a February 27 meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, TASS reported.

Aliyev thanked the Russian government and the Russian foreign minister personally for their active participation in the process. "I think that Russia, as our friend, ally and neighbor, has a special role in helping settle interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia," he stressed․