11:41, 18 May, 2022
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. 277 people were detained by police as of 10:45 May 18 in the latest anti-government protests in Yerevan.
Police said the demonstrators were detained for failure to obey the lawful order of a police officer.
The opposition demonstrators resumed civil disobedience campaigns in the morning of May 18 and are blocking streets in Yerevan.
11:56, 18 May, 2022
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Smbat Gevorgyan, born in the town of Ashtarak, studied at the Shirakatsy Lyceum, Yerevan, in the 9th and 10th grades, then entered the Faculty of Biology at Yerevan State University and specialized in the realm of genetics. Smbat holds a postgraduate degree in medical nanotechnology from Milan University, where he worked on the creation of nanoparticles intended for the treatment of various diseases. Afterwards, he left for Basel, Switzerland, and worked professionally as a postdoctoral researcher. Smbat was back to his homeland to work for the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST). Currently, he is involved in the ASCENT (Advanced Solutions Center) program by FAST, aiming at the commercialization of innovative scientific solutions in bioscience.
Could you please elaborate on your current activity?
The major criticism toward science is that its outcomes are hardly ever palpable, while scientists are blamed for far too abstract research. This issue is particularly acute in Armenia- why should the state fund science provided there is no visible result. Successful instances of commercialization of scientific output generate interest in scientists’ work. It goes without saying that commercialization is not the core aim of science, it is rather a side effect, though this is what makes scientific results palpable. That’s because science creates new knowledge, non-existent before, thus enabling to not merely set the bar higher, but also to establish a new one. It is worth noting that science-based startups are quite perspective, even though they involve high risks, they are justified as the results are multiple times as big.
One of the most eminent instances of scientific commercialization is a generation of various inventions by the inventor and engineer Thomas Edison, which turned into a particular product or technology, transforming people’s life. Another illustration is our compatriot Noubar Afeyan’s activity, who is a scientist as well. He has founded the venture capital company Flagship Pioneering which is behind hundreds of accomplished companies it has incubated. One of such portfolio companies is Moderna which obviously changes people’s life for the better.
Occasionally, scientists immerse themselves in academic science and have no idea about how they need to conduct market research, work out marketing strategies, turn research results into a particular product. This is what frequently holds plenty of scientists back from a career of an accomplished businessperson, whereas Flagship Pioneering is there to resolve this issue through commercialization of competitive scientific ideas. We intended to adhere to this same model in the framework of the ASCENT program, by creating and incubating science-based startups from scratch, at all stages of gaining market share and promotion of the product.
How did your scientific career path commence? Why did you opt for this particular profession and decide to continue with postgraduate studies?
As far as I can recall, I’ve always been eager to become a scientist. I took an interest in natural phenomena and tried to sort out their causes in early childhood. I was fond of all the school subjects linked with natural sciences and had the best results at school olympiads in biology. In particular, in the 9th grade, I came first in the republican Olympiad, which made my family members believe I could make a good doctor. If I had wanted to, I could have received a full scholarship to study at Medical University, but I wasn’t into that, I wanted to do science instead. I had to struggle with my family for a while to be able to pursue my career path. There are no scientists in my family, though education has always been a priority.
Back in 2012, when I came to realize I needed to continue with my postgraduate studies, Armenia didn’t provide all the favourable conditions necessary for complete scientific activity. Besides, international expertise is beneficial at all times- a foreign country, a different work culture, new people, new network. Both work conditions and my passion for self-perfection pushed me to leave for Europe for my postgraduate studies. In addition, the field of medical nanotechnology, which I was keen on, is not at its best in Armenia, we lack a specialized scientific school to date.
Which experience of foreign educational model do you think needs to be assimilated?
As for theoretical knowledge, in case Armenian students are able to cover professional literature in English, it won’t make a huge difference. As regards experimental, and laboratory work, we lag well behind, the gap was especially evident ten years ago when I left to study overseas. We were unable to put coursebook knowledge into practice through lab experiments. Thus, our knowledge was highly flawed. In Italy, I was taken aback by their university laboratories equipped with the latest cutting-edge equipment. Most of it cost thousands of dollars and I got the chance to work with them. The situation has been gradually improving in our country as well, some laboratories are getting similarly well-equipped. The university I wrote my postgraduate dissertation had no shortage in either materials or equipment, the conditions were highly favourable for creative work. On top of that, salaries were so high that it was sufficient for solely focusing on science, that is, there was no need for an additional part-time job.
How did you envision a scientist before becoming one?
Scientists seemed to be the smartest people to me, for that reason the social stereotype of scientists as pitiful and helpless people who are poorly paid and burden on social services, has always sounded weird to me. Now, as I deal with people of diverse occupations, I can see smart people can be found in all professions but not all of them do science. There are, in fact, not that smart scientists as well though (laughs), but most are smart indeed. Scientific activity is creative, no boundaries, there’s the freedom to explore anything that interests scientists themselves and other people.
What’s the discovery that impressed you the most within the scope of your scientific interests?
Overall, I keep track of advancements in all scientific branches. For instance, a couple of years ago I was immensely impressed by the discovery of gravitational waves. It evidenced Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, according to which time and space are intertwined and massive space objects, while moving with extreme accelerations, cause gravitational waves in the curvature of spacetime, moving at light speed. Moreover, scientists managed to detect gravitational waves which were caused by the mergence of black holes, orbiting around each other in enormous distances (a place in spacetime where nothing escapes its gravity, even the light, thus it is called a black hole).
As regards my field, the discovery, that also inspired me to opt for medical nanotechnology, is nanorobotics. Nano length is a billion times as small as a meter, that is, a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. We deal with nanoparticles, which are several nanometers wide in diameter. Namely, they are particles a hundred thousand times as small as a millimetre which we can manipulate, select a size and shape, and place functional groups on the surface and medicine inside. Nanorobots can be implanted into the organism and selectively kill cells targeted by us, with no harm to others. Possibilities are indeed limitless, akin to science fiction. As a result of my research, I got nanoparticles which could reach the brain and target tumours in it. Those are medicine injected into the blood or taken as a pill, so that they can reach the programmed spot by travelling in the bloodstream.
Would you mention any scientists who are role models and whose work has been a guideline for you?
There are plenty of talented scientists but I would highlight Marie Curie. He was the first scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in two diverse scientific fields, physics (1903) and chemistry (1911). And she has been the only one so far. Given the fact that women didn’t use to have the same status as men a century ago, it was much more complicated for the former to achieve results in science. Besides, she was also an immigrant, a fact that amplifies her accomplishment even further.
How does a day in a scientist’s life start and end?
At present, I am mostly engaged in program coordination, but in case we consider a typical scenario, the scientist comes to the laboratory, reads scientific articles and publications, gets inspired by novel ideas to carry out experiments. Afterwards, he or she thoroughly plans the experiment with a pen and paper or over the computer, carries it out, analyzes the outcomes which make history, provided they are satisfactory, and later come out as a scientific article.
Scientists might also fail. How do they overcome failures?
In fact, there is much uncertainty in scientific work- you try to discover the new but never know whether that will work. While outlining the experiment, you hope to succeed, though there’s a good chance you’ll never get the anticipated result. An experiment running for weeks might turn out to be futile, which is devastating indeed. For that reason, scientists need their colleagues’ and family’s backup not to give up, to carry on persistently and keep refining their results.
What would you tell a child who wants to become a scientist?
I would definitely encourage them to do science if they do want to explore the reasons underlying various phenomena, to try to figure out why the world is the way it is. Each profession has its merits and demerits but I find the advantages of doing science more prevalent. Those are the international nature of science, creative work, being ahead of time, when you are aware of incredible achievements that will benefit humankind before long, whilst they are still unknown to the public.
What would you consider to be your career peak?
Each scientist would mention the Nobel Prize as a career peak. Very few scientists achieve it, therefore, to a degree, it is a dream rather than an aim. If you are a talented scientist who gets decent scientific results, luck needs to be taken into consideration as well as it plays a crucial role in order to be in the right place at the right time.
Previous interviews of the “10 questions to a scientist” series are below:
Any beneficial discovery for the sake of humankind would be regarded as a career peak for me. Ella Minasyan
I decided to carry on with the family tradition of pursuing science. Karen Trchunyan
Nothing brings as much joy to a person as the feeling of the reward of a scientific result. Ani Paloyan
The story of Anoxybacillus karvacharensis found in the geothermal spring of Artsakh as a source of inspiration. Diana Ghevondyan
In an American lab 20 years ago I felt like in a Hollywood movie. Anna Poladyan
Science excelled all jobs because it is perspective: Sargis Aghayan
The easiest way to change the world is to do science: Sona Hunanyan
Armenian News Calendar of events
(All times local to events)
What: “Armenian-Turkish Relations in the 21st Century”
a Zoom lecture in Armenian presented by Dr. Khatchig Mouradian
Genocide Scholar and Lecturer at Columbia University
When: Thursday, May 19, 2022 at 7:00pm Pacific time
Where: Zoom Lecture
Organized by Crescenta Valley Meher & Satig Der Ohanessian Youth Center
2633 Honolulu Ave. Montrose, CA 91020
Misc: The lecture explores the trajectory of Turkish Armenian relations since the early 2000s.
It offers an overview of diplomatic efforts, civil society projects, and scholarly
initiatives, examining causes of past failures, and the possibility of a just and
meaningful engagement.
We invite the greater community to attend this free zoom presentation.
Tel: 818-244-9639
Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82842301894?pwd=S0JjR1dPb0NjMmdBMlVzazVzTllOQT09
Armenian News’s calendar of events is collected and updated mostly from
announcements posted on this list, and submissions to Armenian [email protected].
To submit, send to Armenian [email protected], and please note the following
important points:
© Copyright 2022, Armenian News Network / Armenian News, all rights reserved.
Los Angeles, CA / USA
Police in Armenia arrest hundreds of protesters as opposition supporters seek to spread their month-long anti-government demonstrations throughout Yerevan. Yerevan has been gripped by anti-government protests since mid-April, with opposition parties demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation over his handling of a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan.
Watch the report at
For weeks, protests have roiled Armenia. Thousands have marched in the streets calling for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to step down. Post-Ukraine, in what Moscow views as its backyard, and with the leading protagonists not only sympathetic but warm to Vladimir Putin’s worldview, the crisis should be cause for alarm amongst Western governments — and particularly U.S. officials.
If protesters succeed in ousting Pashinyan, Russian control will once again spread beyond its borders. Unlike Ukraine, it would not be through invasion. Effective annexation would nevertheless be the result.
Armenia’s former president, Robert Kocharyan, is reportedly spearheading the protests and has already set out his vision. Just days before Russia invaded Ukraine, he called for Armenia to join a Moscow-led union state, reaffirming his past commitments to fully fledged integration with Armenia’s neighbor. Kocharyan is not only an eager supporter but a seeming client of Russia. He has long sat on the board of one of the country’s largest investment companies, Sistema; the same company to post part of his multimillion-dollar bail when he faced criminal charges in 2020. In the context of the war in Ukraine, the U.S. cannot afford for another post-Soviet state to fall under the control of a Putin ally. Washington must therefore look to shore up Prime Minister Pashinyan.
The protests themselves center on the issue that has dominated Armenia since independence from the Soviet Union: Nagorno-Karabakh. Legally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, it has been under the control of Armenian separatists since the Soviet Union’s collapse in the early 1990s; the territory governed as an effective extension of Armenia — like the Russian Republics of Crimea or Donetsk in Ukraine, or Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia.
A short conflict two years ago saw Azerbaijan regain most of its territory. Having removed a critical obstacle to the decades-long conflict, efforts to formally reach a peace settlement appear to be taking shape and compromises will be necessary. Armenia will need to rescind its territorial claims over Azerbaijan, presumably for formal protections for ethnic Armenians living there. But any hint of concession is what demonstrators rally against.
With thousands in the streets, Pashinyan’s future looks shaky. Even if he is not replaced by a Russian puppet, the protests could still secure Russian interests. The prime minister may see his survival only in acquiescing to protesters’ demands and spoiling the peace deal. That would maintain the current status quo, which currently protects and projects Moscow’s influence in the region. Accordingly, the U.S. must persuade Pashinyan to stay the course.
An agreement would also break Armenia’s economic dependence on Russia, equally essential for peeling away support. With a durable peace comes the end of Armenian isolation — not only opening borders with Azerbaijan to the east, but unlocking them with Turkey to the west. To the south lies Iran, but the difficult terrain is inhospitable to trade. Ankara severed diplomatic relations in the 1990s in support of its ally Azerbaijan. Trade and renormalization with both offers the opportunity to diversify away from food and remittances reliance on Russia; Armenia receives, for example, 99% of its wheat from Russia, in addition to 5% of its GDP in remittances from emigrant workers based there. Natural gas-rich Azerbaijan also holds out a break with its near total dependence on Russian energy, as well as new opportunities for renewable-generated electricity from wind and hydro-rich Karabakh.
Free from such dependency, Russia could not so easily impose its will on Armenia — regardless of who sits atop the government.
America must lend a hand to Armenia’s embattled prime minister. Only by taking a broad approach can Russian aggression be checked. The recent trip by the Armenian foreign minister to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and sign an memorandum of understanding on civil nuclear cooperation is a start. But more diplomatic support must be forthcoming, and assurances given that America stands with him, and will assist, were Russia to economically punish Armenia for not toeing the line.
The U.S. must therefore forcefully encourage the peace deal with Azerbaijan and parallel rapprochement with Turkey — even if it comes at the price of concessions. Only then, in the long-term, can Armenia break free from Russia’s orbit.
Prof. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is the executive director of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him on Twitter @ProfSheehan.
The EU-Armenia Partnership Council met for the fourth time in Brussels on 18 May 2022, and for the first time since the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) entered into force on 1 March 2021. The meeting took place in a particularly difficult international context that has created multiple challenges to both the EU and to Armenia in terms of security and economic stability.
The Partnership Council reviewed the implementation of the CEPA, which covers a wide range of cooperation sectors in the political, economic and trade areas, and welcomed the progress achieved. The EU welcomed Armenia’s commitment to CEPA implementation, appreciated positively the reforms undertaken and encouraged the government to pursue its reform agenda to the benefit of Armenian citizens, which the EU fully supports.
The Partnership Council reiterated the shared commitment of the EU and Armenia to human rights, fundamental freedoms, the rule of law and democratic principles. The Partnership Council welcomed the accomplishments to date in the implementation of Armenia’s national strategy for judicial and legal reforms and its national anti-corruption strategy, while acknowledging that challenges remain. The EU is engaged in a constructive policy dialogue with Armenia and provides significant financial and technical support to these reforms efforts. The EU is committed to work with Armenia to make further progress towards freedom of the media and freedom of _expression_, as well as on the fight against discrimination.
In the area of transport, the Partnership Council welcomed the signature of the Common Aviation Area Agreement on 15 November 2021. With this agreement, both sides engage in a process to improve Armenia’s aviation safety that may gradually lead to Armenia’s inclusion in the EU’s aviation market with new air transport opportunities, more direct connections and economic benefits to both sides.
The Partnership Council noted that, following its graduation from the Generalised Scheme of Preferences, Armenia can no longer benefit from the generous access to the EU market offered by the scheme. It however highlighted that while CEPA did not provide for preferential tariffs for trade in goods, it contained important potential for benefitting bilateral trade flows that should be fully exploited.
The Partnership Council agreed that nuclear safety was a priority and took note of Armenia’s progress in this regard and of Armenia’s commitment to implement fully the National Action Plan adopted as a part of the EU supported stress test process. It also reaffirmed the importance of combatting climate change under the Paris Agreement and in accordance with the CEPA. To this end, the EU welcomed Armenia’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution targets and encouraged Armenia to adopt a Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy, aiming at reaching climate neutrality by 2050, in line with the EU’s commitment.
The Partnership Council welcomed EU-Armenia cooperation in the areas of employment and education, underlining the importance to amend the Labour Code and revise legislation on trade unions and employers to further align the Armenian legal framework with the International Labour Organisation fundamental conventions. The EU encouraged Armenia’s efforts to adopt the new education strategy and reiterated its interest to strengthen cooperation with the Armenian authorities on Education, Training and Youth strategies. The Partnership Council expressed appreciation for the successful cooperation on Erasmus+ and welcomed the association of Armenia to the EU programme Horizon Europe that will allow the continuation of the participation of Armenian researchers and research entities to European Research and Innovation projects.
The Partnership Council took note of Armenia’s willingness to start a visa liberalisation dialogue with the EU. The EU noted the overall good implementation of the Visa Facilitation agreement and of the Readmission agreements and invited Armenia to sustain its efforts.
The Partnership Council agreed on the importance of the Eastern Partnership framework as an essential cooperation platform. It also reiterated that the fundamental issues of democracy, good governance, rule of law, fight against corruption, human rights and gender equality remained the cornerstone of the Eastern Partnership policy framework. The Partnership Council noted that Armenia stood to benefit from the Eastern Partnership’s agenda of recovery, resilience and reform1,2, and from the ambitious Economic and Investment Plan (EIP) with flagship initiatives determined by EU and Armenia, underpinning this agenda that will provide support to stimulate jobs and growth, support connectivity, the green and digital transition, education and development of southern regions.
Ahead of the Partnership Council, the EU issued the Partnership Implementation Report on developments in Armenia and EU-Armenia relations since the previous Partnership Council in December 2020. The report underlines Armenia’s progress in implementing the CEPA and the key role of the EU in supporting it3.
The Partnership Council was chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Mr Ararat Mirzoyan, and the EU delegation was led by the High Representative and Vice President of the European Commission, Mr Josep Borrell. The Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Mr Olivér Várhelyi also participated in the meeting.
1SWD(2021) 186 final, 2.7.2021
2https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2021/12/15/
3https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9214-2022-INIT/en/pdf
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-ministerial-meetings/2022/05/18/
PanARMENIAN.Net – U․S․ Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has discussed with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu the settlement of relations with Armenia, the Turkish Minister told reporters on Thursday, May 19.
“We discussed the situation in Ukraine, the process of normalizing relations with Armenia, the situation in Syria and the regions,” Cavusoglu said, according to Hurriyet.
According to him, issues on the bilateral agenda were on the table too
Turkey and Armenia last December named special envoys to discuss the normalization of ties. Three rounds of talks followed on January 14, February 24 and then May 3.
PanARMENIAN.Net – As the Nagorno-Karabakh war enters its third decade, renewed fighting in 2020 underscored the risks to one particular group: older people.
Older ethnic Armenians were invariably among the last to flee their villages, and reportedly made up more than half of civilian deaths. Many were subject to war crimes by Azerbaijani forces, including extrajudicial killings and torture and other ill-treatment in detention. Some older men are still missing, Amnesty International says in fresh research published on Tuesday, May 17.
“This report examines the violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, that Azerbaijani forces committed against older people during and after the 2020 fighting. The report also looks at the situation of older people living in displacement in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and the ways that older people remain marginalized in the authorities’ humanitarian response,” Amnesty said.
Older people interviewed for the report were almost invariably the last to flee their villages or towns during the 2020 conflict. For some older people, physical disabilities and health problems made it more challenging and risky for them to flee, while those with psychosocial disabilities or dementia may have found it difficult to understand the necessity or urgency of leaving.
But many older people who did not have disabilities also stayed behind. Some said they wanted to support the war effort by making food or doing laundry for soldiers; others wanted to look after their property, including livestock, while the remaining population was away.
All older people described a deep attachment to their homes and land, both as valuable assets and sources of income as well as for the sentimental value they held. “I took my grandfather [away] a few times, but every time he would… insist on hitch-hiking back to the village,” said one man, whose 90-year-old grandfather was detained unlawfully by Azerbaijani forces. “He said his wife’s gravestone is there [and] he didn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“According to the Human Rights Ombudsman of Nagorno-Karabakh, at least 48 older civilians were killed during the fighting, more than half the total documented civilian death count among ethnic Armenians. While some were killed by indiscriminate shelling, at least 30 older people were killed unlawfully by Azerbaijani forces after they had taken control of villages and towns. Amnesty International was able to verify many of those cases through testimony from witnesses and relatives, as well as through reviewing death certificates, official forensic examinations undertaken by the Armenian authorities, and videos posted to social media. Many of the killings were extrajudicial executions, at times via beheading or shooting at pointblank range, and sometimes appear to have involved torture or other ill-treatment prior to the murder, as well as the mutilation of bodies,” the report said.
“Some older people who stayed behind in towns or villages were arbitrarily detained and transferred to detention facilities in other parts of Azerbaijan. There, soldiers subjected them to beatings and other forms of physical violence and, in one case, to a mock execution, all amounting to torture or other ill-treatment. Older men appear to have been targeted for ill-treatment because Azerbaijani soldiers believed they had participated in Armenia’s war effort during the 1990s. Both older men and older women were denied appropriate medical treatment while in detention, including for serious diseases and conditions.”
The report also shed light on the current situation.
“Compared to other groups with specific risks in situations of armed conflict and humanitarian crisis, older people’s experiences and perspectives have historically been absent from reporting, including by human rights organizations like Amnesty International, and neglected in humanitarian responses,” .
PanARMENIAN.Net – Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigoryan has said that Azerbaijan hasn’t presented “any legal grounds” about possessing enclaves on the territory of Armenia.
The Armenian side, meanwhile, does have legal substantiation proving tha existence of an enclave of its own in Azerbaijan, the Secretary said.
“Armenia’s position on the matter remains the same: we expect Azerbaijan to provide a legal basis for the existence of its enclaves,” Grigoryan said.
Armenia’s Ambassador at-large Edmon Marukyan said earlier that there was no legal ground that any de-jure Azerbaijani enclave has ever existed in the territory of Armenia. Marukyan’s remarks came on Tuesday, May 10, after Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said that enclaves in the territory of Armenia will be returned to Baku.
Do you ever wonder where the first cup of coffee was in Prague, or how it even got there? The first Europeans to get acquainted with coffee were mostly travelers.
The first traveler from the Czech lands to mention coffee was Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice (Czech: Kryštof Harant z Polžic a Bezdružic, 1564 – June 21, 1621).
He was a Czech nobleman, traveler, humanist, soldier, writer, and composer. He joined the Protestant Bohemian Revolt in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown against the House of Habsburg that led to Thirty Years’ War. He discovered coffee on his journey to Constantinople in 1598.
Following the victory of Catholic forces in the Battle of White Mountain, Harant was executed in the mass Old Town Square execution by the Habsburgs.
History of Drinking Coffee in the Czech Republic
No one could even imagine that one day, a penniless but resourceful Armenian would make coffee accessible to everyone, also teaching people the right way of coffee drinking.
Many Czechs didn’t even realize the real purpose of the coffee beans that were sold at pharmacies for unthinkable prices, instead being assured that the beans were an effective means to fight indigestion.
Their unawareness could remain for a very long time if not for one enterprising Armenian named Georgies Deodatus. This quite unusual name was given to him in 1699 in Rome after he adopted Catholicism. As for his homeland, he was born in Syria.
In the early 18th century, Georgies arrived in Prague, having passed a long way. It was worth it though as he would eventually reach success, opening the first coffeehouse in the city. At first, penniless Georgies was strolling the streets of the city disguised as a Turk. He carried a small stove with him to make coffee on the go and sell it in small cups.
This small affair soon turned into a successful business. The Armenian merchant settled in Prague, married, and began to consider opening a permanent café in the city. In 1707, he received permission to open a coffeehouse, and in January 1708, he established the first public café in the country in a house named “U zlatého hada” (“At the golden snake’s place”) now located on Karlova St in the Old Town of Prague.
The before-unseen kind of a store immediately grabbed the attention of the locals. Georgies’ café was so popular that many of its visitors were drinking coffee outside the shop due to the huge number of buyers. Prague got addicted to coffee.
After the passing of Georgies, his coffeehouse for a short time provided his family with considerable earning. But in a year, the café would be closed down. One might consider that it was the end of the entrepreneur’s story. However, the legend of Georgies is one of the most known legends of Prague.
(Above scan from Vlastencové z Boudy: historický obraz by Josef Jiří Stankovský, 1904.)
Everyone knows that he has been an Armenian, but alas, his real name is known to none. Today, the building that used to accommodate Georgies’ shop houses a café also named “U zlatého hada”. The coffee of Georgies Deodatus even occupies an honorary spot in its menu.