YEREVAN. – The conversation with Ilham Aliyev was direct, sincere, without “traps.” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this in an interview with CivilNet, and when asked whether he and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev understand each other well.

“To me, the most important thing in that conversation is that we speak and discuss directly, sincerely, without ‘traps,’ so to speak,” he said. “To be honest, that conversation is a conversation that I believe will continue, and it will be great that it continues; and there are all prerequisites that this conversation continues.”

Asked especially what he and Aliyev speak about, Nikol Pashinyan replied: “I don’t have a secret, and, in general, I prefer not to have any secret about any matter that isn’t a security-related state secret. My position is that everyone should be informed of the Karabakh issue because it’s not the Prime Minister’s issue, it’s not the government’s issue, it’s the people’s issue; it’s a national issue.”

And explaining why he stresses this approach, Pashinyan recalled an example from his recent conversation with Aliyev in Vienna.

“I’ve said that I believe the leaders can’t resolve the Karabakh issue because those who resolve the Karabakh issue are the people,” he said. “No solution is possible if it’s not acceptable to the peoples.”

Nikol Pashinyan highlighted that, overall, the content of that conversation is the same as what was publicly stated, since there are no “closed” or “open” conversations to him; they, in his words, continue to one another.