Elizabeth Tsurkov
Elizabeth Tsurkov (born 1986)[1] is a Russian-Israeli researcher who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 and allegedly held by the group Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia backed by Iran.[2][3] The militia has denied involvement in the matter.[4]
Biography
Tsurkov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia to Jewish parents who moved to Israel when Tsurkov was four.[1]
Tsurkov is a doctoral student at Princeton University who went to Iraq to do academic research.[2] She is a nonresident fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a foreign policy think tank operating out of Washington, D.C.[3] Tsurkov volunteered in several human rights organizations in the middle east, promoting the rights of Palestenians, refugees, migrants, torture survivors, human trafficking victims and various minorities. In 2011 she began learning levantine Arabic, after finishing her bachelor's degree in international studies[5].
Kidnapping
Tsurkov was abducted on March 26, 2023 while sitting in a cafe in Baghdad's Karrada district.[6] Tsurkov was conducting field research in Iraq for her doctoral dissertation at Princeton University. Tsurkov contacted a Shiite cleric named Ahmed Alwani with the intention of meeting his cousin Muhammad Alwani, a senior official in the Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq. When the two men discovered Tsurkov's Israeli citizenship, they decided to kidnap her.[7]
References
- ^ a b Azizi, Arash. "Free Elizabeth Tsurkov!". Retrieved 2023-07-29.
- ^ a b Ronen Bergman; Patrick Kingsley; Alissa J. Rubin; Adam Goldman (5 July 2023). "Israeli Woman Held for Months in Iraq by Shiite Militia Linked to Iran". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Wikidata Q120379305. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
- ^ a b David S. Cloud (5 July 2023). "Israeli Researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov Held Hostage by Iran-Linked Militia in Iraq, Israel Says". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Wikidata Q120379295. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
- ^ "دولت عراق تحقیق درباره ناپدید شدن شهروند اسرائیلی را آغاز کرد". BBC News فارسی (in Persian). Retrieved 2023-07-10.
- ^ "Joint Statement: Iraq: Release Kidnapped Scholar". Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Scholars at Risk, Democracy for the Arab World Now. September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023."Joint Statement: Iraq: Release Kidnapped Scholar"."Joint Statement: Iraq: Release Kidnapped Scholar".
- ^ Salami, Daniel (2023-07-07). "Iraqi TV footage shows Israeli researcher leaving cafe just before abduction". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
- ^ "Israeli-Russian Researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov's Circumstances of Alleged Kidnapping in Iraq Revealed". Shafaq News. Retrieved 2023-07-29.