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The Ossetians of Turkmenistan

The Ossetians of Turkmenistan, numbering approximately 2,600 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are an Eastern Iranian ethnic group indigenous to Ossetia, a homeland that is politically divided between North Ossetia-Alania in Russia and South Ossetia, a Russian-occupied territory of Georgia. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Iron Ossetic is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: Ossetian

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Persian-Median Peoples
Country: Turkmenistan
People Cluster: Persian
Primary Language(s): Iron Ossetic (oss)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 2,600
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024630
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Pray for the Ossetians of Turkmenistan

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

40%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Iron Ossetic
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Ossetic Speakers

Media Resources in Iron Ossetic:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Iron Ossetic:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2002 Institute for Bible Translation, Moscow✓✓✓
2004 Institute Bible Translation, Moscow✓✓

2 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Iron Ossetic bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Ossetians:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Ossetians of Turkmenistan

He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him
readLuke 10:34

Pray that the lost among them will experience the kind of compassion Jesus taught His followers to show others, and that they will trust in Him because He is the one who brings healing to the broken and lost.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
readLuke 5:27-28

Prat that God will prepare many hearts to meet Him when He says, “Follow Me!” and that they will respond in faith, leaving everything behind to follow Him.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
readHebrews 10:26

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will live with reverence for God and not deliberately keep sinning after they receive the knowledge of the truth.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
readPsalm 57:9

Pray that God will raise up believers among them who will boldly go and share the gospel with people nearby and with those far away.

Ossetian, Iron Across Countries (ROP3 - 107699) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

7 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
OssetiansPG024475OssetiansRussian Federation445,000Engaged yet UnreachedIron OsseticEastern Orthodox Christianity
OssetiansPG024577OssetiansTurkiye44,500Unengaged and UnreachedIron OsseticSunni Islam
OssetiansPG000798OssetiansGeorgia33,000Engaged yet UnreachedIron OsseticEastern Orthodox Christianity
OssetiansPG024308OssetiansUzbekistan11,000Unengaged and UnreachedIron OsseticSunni Islam
OssetiansPG024080OssetiansAzerbaijan3,400Unengaged and UnreachedIron OsseticSunni Islam
OssetiansPG024291OssetiansKazakhstan2,800Unengaged and UnreachedIron OsseticSunni Islam
OssetiansPG024630OssetiansTurkmenistan2,600Unengaged and UnreachedIron OsseticSunni Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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