YEREVAN, August 17. /ARKA/. In an interview with the Yerkir Media TV channel on August 16  former Armenian president Robert Kocharian said he was willing to discuss a set of issues related to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

 "I have never avoided negotiations. An important function of the opposition is to give a clue to the authorities, to voice a different opinion. If you want to learn something, you must also communicate with people who have a different opinion. If people who think alike gather in the same place, they will learn nothing from each other. One needs to listen to a different opinion as well,» he said.

In comments on Pashinyan's words that Armenia should not conduct negotiations on behalf of Karabakh, which must become a direct participant in the negotiation process, Kocharyan noted that the first person of Armenia can not step aside and say that he is washing his hands.

He said such statements stem from inexperience as the members of the new government do not quite imagine what it means to refuse the negotiation process and the possible consequences of it.

 During a  May 9 visit to Nagorno-Karabakh  Pashinian said that the Karabakh conflict can not be solved without direct participation in the negotiations of its authorities, saying that only its  authorities have the right to speak on behalf of Karabakh people.

In this regard, Kocharyan stressed that the worst negotiations are better than the war, calling it a simple truth. "If you refuse to negotiate, then war is the only solution," he added. Kocharyan said one of the reasons prompting his political comeback is the foreign policy of Nikol Pashinyan’s government.

 ‘Look at the map – where Armenia is, what kind of relations it has with its neighbors and what is happening at all. Today, Russian-American relations are at the lowest level after the end of the cold war. Washington has slapped  new sanctions against Russia, withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran, " Kocharyan said.

He put a special emphasis on how Turkey has changed over the past 10 years. "It was another country, it sought EU membership, and that limited its aggression and interference in the internal affairs of its neighbors. It had to show that it was a democratic country with freedom of speech. Today Turkey is completely a different country," he said.  -0-