Baloch of Turkmenistan
[1] 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.The Mervi Beluch are closely related to those Baloch in Afghanistan[5] and Iran who live near the modern borders of Turkmenistan.[4] Kerim Khan is one of the prominent of the Baloch of Turkmenistan, who helped Turkmens arrested by the Soviet government from prison.[6] 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,[6] but since the independence of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov had closed almost all non-Turkmen schools.