The Baloch of Turkmenistan ( (Perso-Arabic) / Туркманиста̄нӣ Бало̄ч (Cyrillic) ) are a small part of the greater Baloch people who live primarily in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Turkmenistan has a population of 300,000 Baloch people who are permanent inhabitants. They immigrated into the Merv and the Murghab River inland delta from the areas west and north of Herat, Afghanistan, Chakhansur district in the province of Nimruz and Iran in the mid 19th century. More followed in the early 20th century and before closure of the Russian/Soviet borders under Stalin in 1925.

Background

The Mervi Beluch are closely related to those Baloch in Afghanistan and Iran who live near the modern borders of Turkmenistan. Kerim Khan is one of the prominent of the Baloch of Turkmenistan, who helped Turkmens arrested by the Soviet government from prison. Except the Baloch, the entire ancient oasis is now Turkified, with the Turkmens forming a vast majority of the population. Under Soviet Turkmenistan textbooks in the Balochi language based on the Latin script and newspapers in Balochi were published in Ashgabat and Mary, but since the independence of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov had closed almost all non-Turkmen schools. In 1926 the Baluch of Merv Oasis numbered 9,974. Their numbers fell to 7,842 in the official statistics by 1959 but then rose to 12,582 by 1970 and 18,997 by 1979. The Baloch of Turkmenistan are Sunni Hanafi Muslims. The Baloch in Turkmenistan speak the Western Balochi dialect, and Turkmen is used as the literary language.