The Baloch in Turkamanistan
The Baloch in Turkamanistan
The first Baloch migrants in Russia appeared in the region of Mari in Turkistan, i.e. in the territory which nowadays belongs to the Republic of Turkmenistan. The statistical report on Turkmenistan for 1917 – 1920 mentions 9936 Baloch living in the Bayram-Ali district. The Baloch of Turkmenistan mostly came from Afghanistan, from the Chakhansur district located in the province of Nimruz, in the Sistan area of Afghanistan. Apart from them there were also a small group of Baloch who migrated to Turkistan from Iran (from Khurasan). In these migrations there were also some Brahuis who came together with the Baloch.
In the 1920s separate groups of the Baloch belonging to different Balochi tribes were united by Kerim Khan. This Baloch chief was an extraordinary personality. He was a poor shepherd from the beginning but managed to make a career and to become a famous, even legendary chief of the Baloch in Turkmenistan. The Baloch of Turkmenistan, united under his power, at the beginning supported the Soviet power and being very brave warriors, they helped the Soviet authorities in their struggle against the Basmachis (counterrevolutionary movement in Turkistan, which lasted actively from 1920 till the mid-30s). At the end of the 20s, because of disagreement with the Soviet authorities, Kerim Khan together with the majority of his people left Turkmenistan for Iran or Afghanistan. Nobody knows where he went. I tried to find it out during my trips to Turkmenistan, but in vain. Kerim Khan’s traces should be looked for outside Turkmenistan, either in Iran or in Afghanistan. It would be very interesting to find out what happened to him and his people afterwards.
At the present time the Baloch of Turkmenistan live mainly in the districts of Bayram-Ali and Iolotan of the region of Mari (Mariyskiy velayat). According to the data of the 1959 census in the USSR, 17,800 Baloch lived in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Turkmenistan, in the valley of the Murghab river, in the districts of Bayram-Ali, Turkmen-Kala and Iolotan, and 94,9 % of them considered Balochi to be their mother tongue. In the 1970 census there were 32 600 Baloch in Turkmenistan, and 91,8 % regarded Balochi as their native language. In the 1979 census there were 78 997 Baloch in Turkmenistan, and 18 633 persons (98,1 %) stated that Balochi was their native language. There are in 1997 probably approximately 80 000 – 140 000 Baloch in Turkmenistan, although some give a higher estimation of over 200 000 or even more. The very strong loyalty among the Baloch to their mother tongue is quite remarkable, and can at least to a certain degree be explained by their rural way of life. A thorough investigation of the socio-economic conditions under which this strong retention of the Balochi language has been possible would be very interesting to carry out.
The Turkmenian Baloch believe themselves to be a part of the big ethnos. For a long time, however, they were separated from the other Baloch by the “Iron Curtain”, and had practically no contacts with the Baloch of the other countries. In 1934 the Soviet border with Iran and Afghanistan was closed and this event became a source of many personal tragedies and disasters. It was unexpected, and those who were in Iran or Afghanistan making their earnings or visiting relatives could not return to their families. Thus, parents were separated from children, brothers from sisters etc. It was impossible for them to unite again. The only reason for that was the “Iron Curtain” along all the Soviet borders. It was only at the end of the 1980s, with the beginning of Gorbachov’s perestroika and after the disintegration of the USSR that many Turkmenian Baloch got the opportunity to visit Iran and Afghanistan in order to find their lost relatives and reunite with them after long years of separation.
The history of the Baloch is the history of constant migrations over vast territories. However, the lack of a written literary tradition and written sources makes it difficult to study, not the legendary, but the real history of the Baloch. The Baloch never had an independent state of their own in the proper sense of the word. The Kalat State could not be considered a truly independent Baloch state. In spite of the fact that the Kalat State united many Baloch tribes, it did not exist long and it could not play a prominent part for the Baloch culture nor for the establishment of a tradition of writing in the Balochi language.
From a political point of view, throughout history the Baloch were generally subdued by the power of stronger and better organized conquerors, and as usual, they did not pay attention to the Balochi language and culture. Anyway, in spite of all the complications and peculiarities in the destiny of the Baloch, they have managed not only to create an enchanting, rich and original culture, but also from many points of view very interesting and unique literary specimens. To my profound regret, these have not up till now been described or studied to the extent that they deserve to be. The masterpieces of the Balochi literature have not to any large extent been translated into the main world languages.
From this point of view the Turkmenian Baloch are not an exception. They are even in a worse position in comparison with the others. Not very much has been done to study their language and culture, even though some studies on the Balochi language and Balochi culture were made in Moscow and Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg) during the Soviet period. When it comes to the oral literature of the Turkmenian Baloch, for example, I. I. Zarubin collected and published a number of folk tales with translations into Russian. It is, however, striking enough that in the twentieth century not a single book or monograph has been published in Turkmenistan about the Baloch.
It should be said that the disintegration of the USSR has brought for the Baloch of Turkmenistan more losses and disillusions than joys and achievements, especially in such fields as education, culture and science. Moscow was always for the Turkmenian Baloch the force which helped them to stand against the domination of the Turkmens, and in spite of all the difficulties, they had some opportunities for education (there were special quotas in different institutes for the Baloch students) and cultural progress. After the disintegration of the USSR, Moscow ceased to be the centre for Turkmenistan, and nowadays the Turkmen central government does little for the national minorities living there.
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