YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — President Serzh Sarkisian unexpectedly met with opposition leader and former President Levon Ter-Petrosian on Saturday to discuss Armenia’s response to the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
A statement by the presidential press office said Sarkisian visited Ter-Petrosian’s private residence in Yerevan and spoke with one of his most bitter political opponents for about an hour.
The statement said their conversation “solely applied to the recent events on the Karabakh-Azerbaijani border” and “forthcoming developments anticipated in the Karabakh negotiation process.” They also discussed the “need for a national consolidation in the face of those challenges,” it said.
“The meeting was initiated by Levon Ter-Petrosian,” noted the statement. It gave no other details.
Neither Ter-Petrosian nor his Armenian National Congress (HAK), a major opposition party, immediately issued any statements on the surprise meeting.
Ter-Petrosian, who served as Armenia’s first president from 1991-1998, has been a harsh critic of Sarkisian ever since he staged a political comeback in 2007. The two men were the main candidates in a 2008 presidential election that was marred by a bloody government crackdown on Ter-Petrosian’s opposition movement.
The hotly disputed ballot formalized a handover of power from Ter-Petrosian’s successor Robert Kocharian to Sarkisian.
Both Kocharian and Sarkisian held key posts in the Ter-Petrosian administration. They were also instrumental in his resignation in 1998.
![Blood samples await testing for HIV in the Chelstone Clinic. The clinic offers PMTCT programmes and other health services. The integration of HIV/AIDS services into general health facilities reduces the stigma attached to seeking HIV-related care and broadens the reach of these services. [#4 IN SEQUENCE OF EIGHT]
In May 2009 in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, the Chelstone Clinic provides vital programmes to treat HIV-positive pregnant women and prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). PMTCT programmes include HIV testing during pregnancy, antiretroviral (ARV) regimens for sick HIV-positive pregnant women, and early diagnosis and treatment for infants exposed to HIV in utero. These infants receive prophylactic antibiotics and ARVs in the weeks after they are born and are administered HIV tests at six weeks. If breastfed by an HIV-positive mother, infants continue to receive prophylactics and are tested again at 12 months and 18 months (and three months after breastfeeding ceases or at any age if they fall ill). HIV-positive infants diagnosed and treated within the first 12 weeks of life are 75 per cent less likely to die from the disease. However, many infants do not receive PMTCT services because their caretakers lack access to properly equipped facilities or fear the stigma associated with HIV. Zambia has recently made great strides in expanding PMTCT programmes. In 2007, HIV tests were administered to 65 per cent of pregnant women in the country, and nearly half of HIV-positive pregnant women received ARVs. But for PMTCT measures to be effective, infants must adhere to a long-term, structured course of tests and services, which is difficult for many caretakers.](https://massispost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/HIV-Mother-Child.jpg)
