Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Princeton graduate student who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 while doing dissertation research, is alive, the Iraqi Foreign Minister told a reporter from Axios on Jan. 23. The reporter, Barak Ravid, posted on X that Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said the Iraqi prime minister is “working on her release.”
In an interview, The Daily Princetonian asked Elizabeth Tsurkov’s sister, Emma Tsurkov, whether the news changed anything for their family.
“Substantively — no,” Emma Tsurkov said.
“We’ve been hearing a bunch of lies and contradictory statements from the Iraqi government for almost two years,” Emma Tsurkov told the ‘Prince.’ “I’d be happy to be proven wrong, if tomorrow they come to their senses and get her out of there. I’ll be the first one to applaud them, but right now, they’ve proven themselves as supremely capable of always making the wrong choice.”
After media outlets in the Middle East began to report on the news, Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a clarification, stating it “categorically denies what has been circulated” and that Hussein did not engage with any media representatives.
“They know that my sister is in Iraq and alive,” Emma Tsurkov said. “I mean, I was pleased to see that they’ve acknowledged it, but it wasn’t a surprise, because we have known it for a long time."
Elizabeth Tsurkov was kidnapped in March 2023 by the Iran-backed Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States. Kataib Hezbollah is a member of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, an organization of militias sponsored and funded by Iraq’s government, as ABC reported last spring.
The Axios reporter, Ravid, made the post about Elizabeth Tsurkov from Davos, Switzerland, where he attended a panel discussion organized by CNN on de-escalation in the Middle East. The foreign ministers of Jordan, Syria, France, and the minister of state for foreign affairs of Palestine participated in this panel.
In November 2023, a video of Elizabeth speaking circulated on Iraqi television networks.
In a statement to the ’Prince,’ University Spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote that “The University is focused on Elizabeth’s safety and well-being.”
Emma Tsurkov hopes that the incoming presidential administration will put pressure on the Iraqi government and coordinate her sister’s release. An executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday, followed by an internal State Department Memo on Friday, stipulated a 90-day freeze in almost all foreign assistance in order to complete an “assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.”
“For three years now, the Iraqi government has been saying that they are doing everything they can to uncover my sister’s whereabouts,” Emma Tsurkov told the ‘Prince.’ “The fact that they are now claiming that actually they didn’t say it … [isn’t] particularly inspiring any confidence on my part, and shouldn’t inspire confidence on anyone’s part, especially the U.S. government, while it considers whether to unfreeze the military assistance to the Iraqi government.”
“I would strongly, strongly advocate for conditioning the renewal of assistance to Iraq on my sister’s freedom, because this lawlessness and lack of accountability just cannot stand.”
Elisabeth Stewart is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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