Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Araxes TheThief/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

The first edits of these new users is literally at the Ayyubid dynasty article and are correlated. Moreover, I believe that Artaxius58 (the master sock) is the account of the IPs 176.216.90.225 and 88.243.196.224, as they both randomly reverted the same edit.

It first started with IP 88.243.196.224 replacing the formatted citations with some random ones at the Ayyubid article Added better and clearer resources.. Those however were not improvements, and thus I reverted him. Only to be reverted by the other IP The sources are NOT correct and it says in Bosworth's book that they are Turkified.. I reverted again, demanding a proper explanation. Then I was reverted once more by Artaxius58, which was his very first edit. The page of the article was then protected, which meant that these new users and IPs could not edit the article any longer, thus they started creating sections in the Ayyubid talk page and here we are. The first section being by Artaxius58 commenting on the date of foundation of the dynasty, then a second by ArtaXerxes58, who said the very same. Then today came Mihrdat21, who agreed with ArtaXerxes58.

As for the IPs, most of their edits have been reverted by me and others as they were more damage than constructive. I did think about reporting the 'master' IP 176.216.90.225 to ANI but I cba atm tbh. --HistoryofIran (talk) 18:39, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Requesting CU, which I believe is warranted here (short time intervals, name similarity, etc.). - LouisAragon (talk) 22:28, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - There's no temporal overlap; each account stopped editing as the next one was created, so by our convention, this isn't socking. Not to mention two of the usernames are so similar, it would be hard to argue they're being deceptive.  Closing with no action.  Maybe somebody could engage with them on their talk page to make sure they understand our policies on multiple accounts. -- RoySmith (talk) 23:42, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * PS, so much for "no temporal overlap". I've left uw-agf-sock on all three user talk pages, but the AGF supply is pretty much exhausted.  -- RoySmith (talk) 18:04, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets

 * ( original case name)


 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Same habit of removing/belittling content that verifies an Iranian origin for the ruling dynasties of Armenia, while simultaneously trying to push WP:UNDUE / WP:OR weight onto their Armenian connections.- Artaxius 58 34 & co. has been heavily involved in these sort of edits. Alike the other socks and sockmaster, they also make a few edits here and there on non-Armenia related opics, including European, Turkic and Kurdish topics. - LouisAragon (talk) 16:32, 25 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Also notice the similar username (Araxes, Artaxius, Artaxerxes, etc.). - LouisAragon (talk) 16:35, 25 November 2021 (UTC)
 * The new sock also reinstated the exact same sort of infobox change at the House of Hannover page which one of Artaxius' known sock IPs (now blocked) tried to add. - LouisAragon (talk) 16:35, 25 November 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users
A random IP just appeared and attempted to restore Araxes58's edit. The IP has the exact same geolocation (Istanbul) as the IPs of Artaxius58 34. For a full list of the IPs, see. --HistoryofIran (talk) 17:31, 25 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Found another of his IPs . Both IPs have edited a lot here at List of Iranian dynasties and countries. --HistoryofIran (talk) 12:40, 27 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure how this works now, but another of his IP socks has just spawned making the same kind of infobox change in the same kind of article . --HistoryofIran (talk) 10:14, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Group 1 are ✅:


 * Group 2 are ✅, and to group 1. They are on the same small set of IPs as group 1 with a different device. However, logged out, they have used both devices as well as a third that none of the accounts have used logged in.
 * Blocked the accounts that were not already blocked. please move this to Araxes TheThief and update tags. TIA. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 00:13, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Case moved. Tagging and closing. Sir Sputnik (talk) 00:41, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Blocked the accounts that were not already blocked. please move this to Araxes TheThief and update tags. TIA. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 00:13, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Case moved. Tagging and closing. Sir Sputnik (talk) 00:41, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets


A brand new account knows how to cite sources, and that well? 

Like Araxes' previous socks (be it IPs or users) he attempts to add more sources into the Orontid dynasty about their ethnicity ( addition of the new user -> addition of previous socks   )

Moreover, both this new user and the previous sock attempted to add a Zaza origin into this article; &

A lot of Araxes socks have Old Iranian names as their usernames (Mihrdat, ArtaXerxes58, Araxes58, Artaxius58) and now this one as well (Mithradata). --HistoryofIran (talk) 13:53, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Using old information from the CU log, I find that User:Mithradāta is to Araxes TheThief. I'm blocking Mithradāta as a sock on that basis. Also, based on behavior, I am blocking two Turkish IPs for a month each that appear to be this editor:  and . These IPs aren't confirmed because CU can't confirm IPs. Let me know if you notice more IPs who edit in the same vein. EdJohnston (talk) 05:33, 1 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Tagged, closing. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 06:12, 1 March 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Brand new account "Aratigran" restored content that a sock IP of Araxes originally tried to add to the Nazımiye article. - LouisAragon (talk) 16:34, 18 March 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * ✅ I agree with Roy's verdict below. I found nothing else of interest. EdJohnston (talk) 03:21, 19 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Aratigran is ✅ to Mithradāta from the archives, and based on log history, to Araxes TheThief.  I'll call it proven. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:59, 18 March 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Brand new account, knows their way around well straight off the bat, only interested in Iran/Armenia/Kurdish/Turkish-related edits, with their edits being marked by a pro-Armenia POV.
 * Same sort of username as the sockmaster and his CU blocked socks. Compare the username "Araxishomegas", with CU blocked socks "Araxes58" and the sockmaster himself "Araxes theThief" -


 * Edit: Alright, they just self-admitted being a sock of Araxes theThief: "Sorry, it's been months since the "Araxes TheThief" account was shut down and I'm still on trial for it. It's clear that I'm no longer responsible for this, I haven't made a single change to the English Wikipedia in months. Thank you" - LouisAragon (talk) 00:17, 5 August 2022 (UTC) LouisAragon (talk) 00:17, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - -- RoySmith (talk) 00:29, 5 August 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ -- RoySmith (talk) 00:37, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
I'm also including RojhatAndranik since Dêrsimî62 openly admits that it was his past account.

Although it's been some time since I last filed an SPI for Araxes TheThief, it's certainly not because they have been inactive. I did encounter a few IPs and even a user or two who were most likely him, but I didn't bother to file an SPI as they stopped editing or even managed to get themselves blocked through other means.

Araxes TheThief is an unusual mix of backgrounds; he had some sort of Armenian-Kurdish connection but lived in Turkey, and thus his edits were mostly in articles to do with that (Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish, that is). He did occasionally edit in Iranian-related articles too.

Dêrsimî62 does all those exact same things (Kurdish Turkish Armenian Iranian), and his userpage is incredibly similar to that of past socks of Araxes TheThief; cf. Dêrsimî62's userpage (and also include RojhatAndranik's which mentions his Kurdish background ) - one of Araxes TheThief's socks;  HistoryofIran (talk) 19:32, 23 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Same as the other SPI; Sorry, but I dont understand why the checkuser was declined, their userpages are almost the exact same, including their origins, beliefs, interests, and whatnot. This guy is a notorious sock, and I'm pretty sure I have 100% record on rooting him out. The vast majority of my SPIs turn out to be correct, and I'm here a lot. --HistoryofIran (talk) 13:59, 26 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Dêrsimî62 is currently disrupting some articles as we speak, failing again and again to use the edit summary, talk page and understand WP:LEDE. They're not even bothering to address this SPI. --HistoryofIran (talk) 18:10, 6 April 2023 (UTC)
 * This has been up for almost two months. Dêrsimî62 didn't even bother to address my comment when I directly accused them of sockpuppetry, I think we have more than enough evidence. --HistoryofIran (talk) 14:33, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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 * Somehow, we have two active users from Dersim, with Yuhnuser62 editing almost the same range of topics with little to no edit summaries just like Dêrsimî62. (62 is the location code for the Dersim/Tunceli Province.) Aintabli (talk) 18:33, 28 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Hmmm... Dêrsimî62 appears to be editing through a mobile device unlike Yuhnuser62. Aintabli (talk) 18:41, 28 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Yuhnuser62 also edits in Turkish and Iranian topics, this is deffo not a coincidence. --HistoryofIran (talk) 22:49, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - all except one. --  Amanda (she/her)  12:14, 26 March 2023 (UTC)
 * I'll answer both SPIs here. I don't have any other checkuser data to compare with. The only account that has data in this case is Dêrsimî62. The rest has expired and has been purged from CU. -- Amanda (she/her)  15:20, 26 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Wow, this has been unresolved for a long time. In our defense, the evidence is not the strongest. Merely being interested in topics related to "Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish" is pretty vague, and there are probably numerous unrelated editors who fit that description. It would be helpful if there were specific diffs demonstrating more specific shared interest, but in this case Dêrsimî62 has almost no page overlap with the last active sock. With that being said, I think there is just enough evidence to be reasonably suspicious. The user page similarity is pretty striking, especially because the userboxes there are non-standard. Additionally, there is some limited amount of data saved from previous checks of this master on the private CU wiki (CUs can view it here), which I don't think AmandaNP was aware of, so I decided to run a check on Dêrsimî62. I can state that the data is consistent with past socks of Araxes TheThief— not a smoking gun, but if I had to give a magic-8-ball answer, I would say . Combined with the user page stuff, I think this passes the WP:DUCK test. Dêrsimî62 and RojhatAndranik . No action at this time against Yuhnuser62 because I don't see sufficient evidence. Closing. Mz7 (talk) 03:33, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Right after announcing the above results, I ran another check from a different angle. There in fact is a smoking gun. The following accounts are ✅ to Dêrsimî62:
 * The Araxishomegas account was previously identified to be a sockpuppet of Araxes TheThief. The reason Araxishomegas is not completely stale is because they logged into that account one day in May (months after Amanda declined the check above...). Sock tags updated. Mz7 (talk) 03:40, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
 * The Araxishomegas account was previously identified to be a sockpuppet of Araxes TheThief. The reason Araxishomegas is not completely stale is because they logged into that account one day in May (months after Amanda declined the check above...). Sock tags updated. Mz7 (talk) 03:40, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
 * The Araxishomegas account was previously identified to be a sockpuppet of Araxes TheThief. The reason Araxishomegas is not completely stale is because they logged into that account one day in May (months after Amanda declined the check above...). Sock tags updated. Mz7 (talk) 03:40, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
 * The Araxishomegas account was previously identified to be a sockpuppet of Araxes TheThief. The reason Araxishomegas is not completely stale is because they logged into that account one day in May (months after Amanda declined the check above...). Sock tags updated. Mz7 (talk) 03:40, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
This account was created two days after Dêrsimî62's block. "Gordiya" is likely a reference to Gordyene and Kurdistan, which aligns with Dêrsimî62's Kurdish identity as noted by various versions of their and other socks' userpages. Though, Dêrsimî62 had often edited articles unrelated to Kurds, which is what Gordiya has done. Dêrsimî62 and Gordiya both have the problem of seldom including an edit summary with their edits, which were often quite large, removing or adding thousands of bytes. Both solely use mobile devices to edit. Aintabli (talk) 15:38, 25 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Currently, they have a total of 3 edits on Simple English Wikipedia, and all of these were on the article "Dersim" (which was created less than a year ago by an IP geolocating to Istanbul, likely Araxes TheThief themselves). This is clearly not a coincidence. This reaches the level of a Cyberduck icon.png WP:DUCK in my opinion. Aintabli (talk) 16:38, 25 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Gordiya is somewhat better accustomed to using templates and tweaking tables for a "beginner". Aintabli (talk) 18:22, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
✅ to previous socks, also: Blocking etc. Girth Summit  (blether)  10:50, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
 * -  Girth Summit  (blether)  10:46, 26 July 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Does not appear to be a newcomer: creates drafts, cites like a pro. Just like the other socks, all of their edits are from a mobile device. They have made major additions without giving any explanation, which is a very typical behavioral feature of the sockpuppeteer. Their first draft is on “ethnicity” in Australia, and many of the socks had a history of editing articles unrelated to their background with “ethnicity” being a common concept they are evidently interested in. They are likely claiming some ancestry different from their real background right off the bat in their userpage, as Boswello, one of the confirmed socks, have claimed Iranian and Slovene ancestry. In this case, they are claiming Turkish ancestry as soon as they started the account. The username is in Turkish, and the sockpuppeteer most likely knows Turkish, since I remember some or at least one of the socks had a Turkish name, and associated IPs geolocate to Istanbul. Will be adding edits as evidence very soon. Aintabli (talk) 10:34, 18 August 2023 (UTC)


 * Account was created on the day (26 July) the latest socks were blocked. This is too much of a coincidence. Aintabli (talk) 10:36, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Their first several edits, in which they quickly declared their ethnicity on the day of the account creation:
 * After setting up their userpage, they started editing on "ethnic" stuff.
 * Like the other socks, they have marked major additions as minor and provided no summaries:
 * Similar to the possible sock's username (which means "Hegelian deliriums" in Turkish), the sockpuppeteer also previously used Turkish names: ÖLÜMLÜHAYATYAÖLECENYAKALACAN, which means "mortal life, you either die or remain"), and RecaİskenderTürklereSk, which means "Reca İskender (some first name), 'sk' (some abbreviation I don't know) to Turks". Aintabli (talk) 16:35, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * And it’s really about as close to confirmed as we are going to get here. Courcelles (talk) 12:32, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
 * . Courcelles (talk) 16:40, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
First of all, Torkomaneransahrian has confirmed they are the same person using 46.2.200.26. An inexhaustive list of overlap with other sockpuppets that came to my attention:
 * 1) They are solely using a mobile device to edit.
 * 2) They have a problem of making major edits but not providing any edit summaries, unless they are reverted and want to make a point in response:
 * 3) Tendency to declare ethnicity and nationality as soon as they start the account: Compare to how sockpuppets HegelianHezeyanları wanted everyone to know that they are of "Turkish ancestry", Boswello was a "Perso-Slovenian", Dêrsimî62 was from the "Dersim and Koçgiri regions"
 * 4) They know how to use templates, such as hlist, cite, and use other features that would be largely unknown to total newcomers:
 * 5) Their edits correspond to the sockmaster's recent interest in Iranian Azerbaijanis and related groups such as Karapapakhs and Küresünni as per blocked sockpuppets latest edits: Not to mention that all of these are "ethnic" topics that all of the sockpuppets largely edit on.
 * 6) Their name is "Torkomaneransahrian", yet the IP they used geolocates to Istanbul like all the other IPs reported here, and there is no indication that they know Farsi or Azerbaijani, despite their userboxes. All sources they added were either in English or Turkish.
 * 7) As per the username they are a "Turkoman", "Azeri", "Iranian", but they are adding the unsourced Kurdish name Kurhesinî to Küresünni that only exists in the Kurdish version of the article: It's also interesting why the first edit of the IP was to the aforementioned article. If they are a Turkoman-Azeri-Iranian, why don't they take interest in other topics but a group that has more resemblance to Kurds as stated in the article? Aintabli (talk) 17:20, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
 * 8) They have spent quite some time reading the talkpages so that they manage to ping some of the Iranian users like Wikaviani just like how Boswello poked Arad for an edit they would like to make to the same article. Aintabli (talk) 17:27, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * ✅ to, along with . . . Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 17:52, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Here is an inexhaustive list of overlaps:
 * 1) Geolocates to Istanbul.
 * 2) Edits through a mobile device.
 * 3) Rarely provides edit summaries.
 * 4) Per edit history, they are interested in Middle Eastern (Armenian, Turkmen, Kurdish, ...) stuff and sometimes edit articles outside this area as long as they are "ethnic" topics such as Andamanese peoples or Aboriginal Australians.
 * 5) IP address matches previous ones used by the sock, such as 46.2.200.26. Might be best to rangeblock.
 * 6) Started editing 3–4 days after latest sock block. Aintabli (talk) 19:03, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * IP has been inactive for a couple of weeks. . MarioGom (talk) 23:07, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
The previous report on 46.2.200.106 was closed without action due to IP's inactivity. But the range itself is active. I am copy-pasting the previous report, because the overlapping points apply to this range as well: Here is the edit history of the range. Aintabli (talk) 21:36, 5 November 2023 (UTC)
 * 1) Geolocates to Istanbul.
 * 2) Edits through a mobile device.
 * 3) Rarely provides edit summaries.
 * 4) Per edit history, they are interested in Middle Eastern (Armenian, Turkmen, Kurdish, ...) stuff and sometimes edit articles outside this area as long as they are "ethnic" topics such as Andamanese peoples or Aboriginal Australians.
 * 5) IP address matches previous ones used by the sock, such as 46.2.200.26. Might be best to rangeblock.
 * 6) Started editing 3–4 days after latest sock block.


 * @Izno, I am not looking to “accomplish” something here other than what an SPI is filed for. If this report cannot be acted on, so be it; I don’t have any objections. Aintabli (talk) 07:51, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * For the record, I really had no idea that this range was extremely wide. To my experience, there are cases that /64s were blocked, but I didn't know the difference. Aintabli (talk) 18:38, 25 December 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * -, what are you looking to accomplish at SPI with this request? We aren't going to make a check based on this request to review an entire /16 because we can't connect IPs to accounts anyway, so that just leaves blocking some portion or all of the range. From what I can see there are unreverted edits on the range, so that also probably isn't going to be within policy/practice for IP blocks either. I'm kind of minded to send you to AN(I), but maybe you think there's something you think you can accomplish here? Izno (talk) 07:40, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * @Aintabli, ok, was making sure. Izno (talk) 17:45, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * The range is extremely wide, and, even then, there've been no edits to the range in the last few days. Closing. Bbb23 (talk) 17:53, 25 December 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets

 * 1) Has a very interesting combination of focus on indigenous Australian, Islamic, Armenian, Kurdish topics, which corresponds to the previous sock accounts' interests. For example, blocked sock HegelianHezeyanları made similar edits on Australian and Middle Eastern topics.
 * 2) Knows the templates and whatnot like the back of their hand or at best has a very atypical learning curve:, and many more... (Note that the account was created on 19 November, a few days before making many of these edits.)
 * 3) Makes large number of, often major, changes but does not provide edit summaries:
 * 4) Edits through a mobile device. Aintabli (talk) 21:12, 25 December 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Trannoyye is which is best I can do with the data I have available. Blocked as proven and closing. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 09:24, 26 December 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Made 10 nonsense edits to their userpage 10 days after creating the account, and then started in on Australia and Jesus. Edits to Australia restored text that had previously been added by User:Trannoyye, who has since been blocked as a sockpuppet of Araxes. Edits to Jesus were minor, but removed an infobox related to Baháʼí Faith, which is also a topic recently edited by Trannoye. Onorem (talk) 17:48, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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 * Their edits to Jesus correspond to previous socks' interest in religion-related articles, such as Ali. Byöeg's use of a mobile device and no edit summaries despite repeated major edits is also a typical behavioral aspect of the socks. Aintabli (talk) 17:58, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Yep, that's them. Blocked and tagged.  Girth Summit  (blether)  19:04, 20 January 2024 (UTC)