Uskowi on Iran, signing off

It is with heavy hearts that Nader Uskowi and I, Mark Pyruz, announce we are signing off at Uskowi on Iran. This is the last post.

Mr. Uskowi’s professional commitments no longer afford the time required to put into this publishing effort. I, in turn, have decided to focus on personal health issues.

Looking back, this publishing effort was initiated by Mr. Uskowi on 3 March 2007. I, Mark Pyruz, was recruited in April 2008. Subsequently, writers added to this effort included Paul Iddon, Amir Taheri and Dr. Jabbar Fazeli. We sincerely thank these three writers for their contributions.

During this nearly nine-year run, the total number of posts reached 6,663.

The total number of page views exceeded 8 million, for which we express our deepest appreciation to you, the readership.

Speaking for myself, I am eternally grateful to Nader Uskowi for including me in this effort. I learned a great deal in the process. In retrospect I realize I've been bestowed the opportunity to honor my paternal Iranian ancestral heritage. I know that in all of Mr. Uskowi’s many important endeavors, he is likewise motivated.

This site will remain up for a period of time primarily as a resource for Iran military-related studies.

Farewell from Nader Uskowi and Mark Pyruz.

Center: Nader Uskowi's father, Nasser Oskoui, a full Colonel in the IIA, later rising to the rank of Major General. In civilian suits: three uncles. Center right: Lt. Colonel and brother-in-law to the Uskowis. Circa 1960.

Mark Pyruz's paternal Iranian heritage: 

Freydoun Merat, father, 1973

Ismail Merat, grandfather, Minister of Education and Health/Welfare, University of Tehran chancellor University of Tehran, 1936

Ismail Mumtaz, great-grandfather, writer of 1906 Constitution, Speaker of Parliament, circa 1902

On Uskowi on Iran!

Uskowi on Iran celebrates its sixth year, and starts its seventh. Mark, Paul and Jabbar join me to thank all our readers, commentators and friends for continually supporting our blog throughout these years. It means the world!

The Blogger’s chart shows the growth of our readership in these six years. In the first five months of 2013, we’ve had 1,126,935 visitors and hundreds of commentators. Thanks again from us all! 

Chart credit: Blogger.com

2,000,000!

Moments ago this blog had its 2,000,000^th visitor. Mark Pyruz, Paul Iddon and Amir Taheri join me in thanking all our readers and commentators for their continued interest and support - it means the world!

1,000,000

Moments ago this blog had its 1,000,000^th visitor. Mark Pyruz and Paul Iddon join me in thanking you for your continued interest and support – it means the world!

UOI at 3

By Nader Uskowi

Uskowi on Iran’s first post appeared on 3 March 2007. Three years and hundreds of thousands of visitors later, we love to stay around three more years and beyond!

On 19 April 2008, Mark Pyruz began posting on UOI and immediately lifted the blog’s quality and readership. Today, Mark’s posts and photo and video galleries on Iran’s military and security forces have become an authoritative source for the students of Iranian armed forces and visited by hundreds of people each day. Paul Iddon began his posts on UOI on 31 July 2009 alongside running his busy blog, pauliddon.net. Paul as a student of history has enriched this blog with his historical perspectives on many current issues in Iran.

We all have our day jobs and post during our spare time, not an easy task. Mark, Paul and I could not have continued our work at UOI without the encouragement and support of our readers throughout these years. To our readers: Thank you. We are looking forward to your active engagement, comments and criticism to make this blog more useful. And big thanks to all our fellow bloggers who have shown their support by providing links to our blog. Cheers to all!

Uskowi on Iran: 2 Years Old!

I started this blog on Saturday 3 March 2007. The first post was on President Ahmadinejad’s comments on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, famously comparing it to a train with no breaks. It feels like ages ago, yet so new!

Back then, I expected to have few readers, perhaps some friends and family. But Internet is a serious business. These days, the blog is visited by more than 500 readers (unique visitors) a day; by no means a big number in the cyberspace, but probably not a bad start for a little blog on Iran written not in Farsi but in English. Yesterday, we had more than 1,500 visitors, and more than 4,000 page loads, with Admiral Mullen’s comments on Iran’s nuclear capabilities and the arrest in Tehran of the journalist Roxna Saberi generating lots of interests, and with Hoffingtonpost.com and CNN.com linking Uskowi on Iran to their coverage of those breaking stories.

The biggest thing that happened to us last year, however, was the arrival of Mark Pyruz on 19 April to become the co-author and the co-administrator of the blog. Mark brings to the table a depth of knowledge on Iran and specifically on Iranian military development that is unparalleled in the field today. His first post, Iran Air Force Photo Gallery, and the subsequent Iranian military photo/video galleries, have become points of reference for the students of Iranian military, and are continually visited by hundreds of readers each day.

Mark acts as our military analyst, and I try to comment on the political implications of the country’s nuclear and military developments and its internal politics, acting as the political analyst if you will. This year we are hoping to have other authors joining us to concentrate on economic and social issues facing Iran, Insha’Allah!

Mark joins me to thank you all for your readership, your comments and your support. It’s great to follow issues facing Iran together with you all. Please post comments or email us on how we can improve this blog going forward.

Mamnoon,
Nader

To Our Readers

Due to work commitments and frequent travel by one of the authors and health condition of the other author, we unfortunately need to suspend our blog activities effective today. We will resume our work as soon as we can.

Following resources appearing on sidebar of the blog are updated automatically:
- Latest Iran News
- Latest Iraq News
- Latest Middle East News
- New York Times/ Middle East
- Washington Post/ Middle East

Following bolg rolls also appear on the sidebar dealing with issues relevant to Iran:
- Iran Blogsphere
- Blogs on Middle East/Central Asia
- Blogs on Politics/Foreign Policy

Please accept our sincere apologies for suspending our blogging and our many thanks for your readership.
Uskowi on Iran

To Our Readers

Uskowi on Iran is on an unavoidable vacation for the week.

Following resources appearing on the right-side bar of the blog are updated automatically:
- Latest Iran News
- Latest Iraq News
- Latest Middle East News
- New York Times/ Middle East
- Washington Post/ Middle East

Following bolg rolls also appear on the right-side bar of this blog dealing with issues relevant to Iran:
- Iran Blogsphere
- Blogs on Middle East/Central Asia
- Blogs on Politics/Foreign Policy

Our many thanks again to our readers for visiting this blog. See you soon.

A Year Old!

I first posted on this blog on Saturday 3 March 2007. Uskowi on Iran is now a year old. We’ve posted 365 times during this past year. This is post #366 (it was a leap year after all!)

My goal was to chronicle major events in Iran, this great country, and to offer some insight into those events, and to invite comments by our readers. This blog has major shortcomings in all the three areas.

Uskowi on Iran has nevertheless received heartening support from the blogger community. TheIssue.com has consistently included our posts among “The Best of the Blogosphere” selections. The Iran Daily Voices, the principle site monitoring top blogs and top posts on Iran has ranked Uskowi on Iran among the top ten Iran blogs. CNN.com has often carried our posts in their blog selection during their coverage of major events in Iran. And so has the Sphere.com. And I am indebted to all my co-bloggers who have linked their blogs to Uskowi on Iran.

Let me also take this opportunity to express my thanks and appreciation to those readers and co-bloggers who have contributed much by posting their comments and relevant news items on this blog. They have truly enriched Uskowi on Iran.