Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad debuted his own blog in August 2006, posting entries at www.ahmadinejad.ir under the title "The Personal Notes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." The site is available in Persian, English, and Arabic, with a French version listed as forthcoming. Its design is spare, featuring only the Iranian flag and a photo of the president in a dark suit.
The opening entry traces Ahmadinejad's life from his birth into a poor rural family, the son of a blacksmith, through his university years. He recalled sitting a national entrance examination despite suffering a nosebleed and still earning a score high enough to enter Tehran University's civil engineering program.
The blog praises the 1979 Islamic revolution and devotes considerable space to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who died in 1989. Ahmadinejad also criticizes the United States for backing former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980 to 1988.
Acknowledging that his first post ran long, the president said subsequent entries would be more concise. Notably, his profile photo shows him writing with pen and paper rather than working at a computer.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in August 2006, in its own words.