Six months ago, on March 21 US-based researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov was kidnapped in Iraq. Tsurkov is a dual Israeli and Russian citizen. She was a doctoral student in the Politics Department at Princeton University in the US. Initially, the kidnapping was not reported widely until July when it became public.
At the time we reported that Israeli-Russian citizen Elizabeth Tzurkov was being held hostage by the Shi’ite militia Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, the Prime Minister’s Office announced. In September Amnesty International and other organizations called for her release.
In response to questions from the ‘Post,’ Natan Sharansky said “The Iraqi government has to feel it is their responsibility because, after all the organization that kidnapped her is a part of the government. So, the Iraqi government is responsible.” Sharansky was held as a political prisoner in the Soviet Union and served as a Minister in various capacities in the Israeli government and as Chair of the Jewish Agency. He is familiar with the kidnapping of Tsurkov. “I spent with her father a lot of years in soviet prison together. In my book Fear No Evil about the prison you can read a lot about him. Her father and mother were political prisoners in the Soviet Union from a very young age.”
Now their daughter is being held in Iraq. “To the best of our knowledge – she is alive,” he said. “The Iraqi government is responsible. The Iraqi government receives much money of assistance from America. Liza [Tsurkov] came for research from Princeton [an]American University and was very positive toward the people of Iraq and the Muslim world in general. It is legitimate and natural to expect the US administration to use their relations with the Iraqi government.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Shia’ al-Sudani is discussing US-Iraq relations at the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday in New York City. This takes place in light of the United Nations General Assembly meeting. The Iraqi leader’s presence is in the spotlight because of calls on Iraq to find and release a researcher who was kidnapped earlier this year. Princeton graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov remains missing after having been kidnapped in Iraq earlier this year. PBS hosted a discussion about Tsurkov last week. The report noted that she has been missing for six months. “A dual Russian-Israeli citizen with family in the U.S., she was conducting research for her doctoral degree in Baghdad when she was believed to have been kidnapped by an Iraqi militia. Amna Nawaz spoke with her sister, Emma Tsurkov, about efforts to bring her home.”
The Iraqi leader has not addressed calls for Baghdad to find and release Tsurkov. The Iraqi Prime Minister met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in New York this week. The Iraqi Prime Minister invited Stoltenberg to visit Iraq, “appreciating NATO’s support in the fight against ISIS, military training, advice, and capacity building,” according to a statement posted on social media by Iraq’s government.
The Iraqi leader has also met with Kuwait and Iranian delegations while in New York. He met with White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, Brett Mcgurk on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. “They discussed overall relations between Iraq and the United States and ways to strengthen and develop them at various levels and fields, in a way that serves the interests of the two friendly nations,” the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.
The Associated Press noted in an article that Emma Tsurkov, the sister of Elizabeth, has called for pressure to get her sister released. “The United States should use its influence to help win the freedom of a Russian-Israeli academic at Princeton University who went missing in Iraq nearly six months ago and is believed to be held by an Iran-backed militia regarded by Washington as a terrorist group, her sister said,” the Associated Press reported. “The current level of pressure is unsatisfactory. It’s just not enough,” Emma Tsurkov said in an interview with The Associated Press. “My sister is languishing at the hands of this terror organization. And it’s been almost six months.”
Calls from congress for Tsurkov’s release
According to the PBS interview, member of Congress Representative Eric Swalwell and Senators Menendez and Booker have asked the US State Department to do more regarding the case. Iraq is responsible for people within its territory.
It appears inexplicable that a country that receives support from the US would not be able to find a missing researcher connected to a prestigious university such as Princeton. In addition, it is not the first time Kataib Hezbollah and other militias in Iraq, many of them linked to Iran, have been accused of extrajudicial kidnappings and attacks.
Asked if enough was being done to release Tsurkov. “It is never enough until she is released.” He said it was important to focus on Iraq. “In the days of the struggle for the Soviet Jewry, my position always was that quiet diplomacy can be successful only if there is public pressure at the same time.” Media attention has also been reduced in the last several months since the kidnapping became known in July. “People don’t forget, but it is the nature of the media to report only when something is happening. And it is a consent struggle to keep one or another case at the center of attention. No doubt that the academic world in the US especially Princeton University could do more because one of their students was kidnapped,” Sharansky said. “Her family – parents, sisters, and brother are trying to do their best for Liza, and I appreciate highly what they are doing.”
In the interview with PBS, Emma Tsurkov called for more to be done. “It seems that, so far, everyone is passing the buck. Everyone wants to know what’s happening, but no one wants to take the lead and take the responsibility of doing everything possible to bring my sister back. She’s an amazing, kind, brilliant person, and she doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve this.” According to Amnesty International’s call for Tsurkov’s release “New Lines Magazine reported that she was in Iraq conducting field research on Shia movements in Iraq when she was kidnapped in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad. Her family said that she had emergency spinal surgery to treat a herniated disc eight days before she was abducted.”
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