During the violent crackdown on March 1 and later, this blog became the Samizdat when Kocharian closed down all free media in Armenia. The materials were received from anonymous sources and I never had any desire to know what the names of the people were. My primary reason was to avoid having part in persecuting them. At that point I was not sure how much of the traffic here was monitored and whether my interactions were traced through the IP addresses to find the locations of the sources.
It seems that these dark days are over but today, this is what caught my attention on Radio Liberty:
«Հարցաքննության արդյունքում պարզվել է, որ բաժանորդից բացի նույն հասցեից օգտվում են բազմաթիվ այլ անձինք, եւ հասցեատիրոջը հայտնի չէ եւ չի կարող ասել, ըստ իր ցուցմունքի, թե այդ տեսանյութերը կոնկրետ ովքեր են տեղադրում», - ասաց Հարությունյանը:
"Interrogations revealed that the subscriber uses the same [IP] address is used by numerous other persons, and the addressee (the person accused of publishing the video - IA) does not know and cannot say, according to his testimony, who has placed the videos" said Harutyunyan [the KGB agent, pictured - IA].
The March 1 commission has tracked the IP address of a Youtube video showing the police shooting at the demonstrators and have tracked the user and his IP address. Armenia is notorious for persecuting the whistle blowers instead of the real criminals.
It gets interesting:
«Ազատություն» ռադիոկայանի հարցին, թե արդյո՞ք Ավագյանի ծածկագիրը տարբեր մարդիկ են տնօրինում, Հարությունյանը պատասխանեց. - «Փաստորեն, այո, եւ շատ մարդիկ»:
Answering Radio Liberty's whether multiple people have access to Avagyan's [the person accused of publishing the video - IA] user account, Harutyunyan said "Actually, yes, and a lot of people."
So, the YouTube user account is open to multiple people, who are unknown to each other and thus they can avoid the long arm of the Armenian KGB.
I had not come across such a solution yet. Hopefully this will be a nice tip to all of us fighting dictatorships around the world.
See full article here.