Graduate Students Campaign to Free Elizabeth Tsurkov

On March 21, the first anniversary of the kidnapping of Princeton Ph.D. student Elizabeth Tsurkov, her sister, Emma, stood outside the Iraqi Embassy in Washington D.C., surrounded by protesters with signs reading, “Free Elizabeth Tsurkov Now.” She called on the United States government to do more to secure her sister’s release and to reexamine its relationship with Iraq, where Elizabeth was abducted while conducting field research last March.

Emma Tsurkov told PAW the occasion was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. “I just couldn’t imagine a world in which she’d be held hostage for an entire year, but here we are,” she said. “But it was heartwarming because there were so, so many kind people” at the event.

Meanwhile in Princeton, a group of graduate students and undergraduates primarily from the politics department has been coordinating with Emma to boost the Tsurkov family’s efforts and raise awareness on campus, using listservs to get the word out.

“We’re really trying to provide support for Emma, rather than strategizing ourselves, beyond just, who can we reach out to, and how can we disseminate the message further,” said Robert Oldham, a fifth-year politics graduate student who had taken classes with Tsurkov. Oldham and others have connected with local organizations, such as the Adath Israel Congregation in Lawrenceville, for additional support.

Tsurkov is a dual Israeli-Russian citizen who was conducting research related to her approved Ph.D. dissertation topic when she was abducted by Kataib Hezbollah, a group considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The only publicly known lead in the case came in November, when Iraqi television purportedly showed Tsurkov confessing to working for the CIA and Mossad — links that her family denies.

“Sometimes it just doesn’t get talked about, and it’s like, we’re just going about life as normal, and the person who used to be right here — her life is in danger.”

— Narrelle Gilchrist
Third-year politics graduate student

In recent months, the Tsurkov family has created the website BringElizabethHome.com to provide updates and to encourage supporters to write letters to a different government official each week, such as Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A mid-March newsletter said that “well over 100 supporters reached out to Senator Cardin’s office on Elizabeth’s behalf.” The family has advocated for enhanced congressional oversight of U.S. funds sent to Iraq and for Iraq to be designated as a state-sponsor of terrorism.

In April, 16 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urging continued action on Tsurkov’s behalf, including raising the matter with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani during his scheduled visit to the White House in mid-April, after this issue of PAW went to press. 

The University marked the anniversary of Tsurkov’s abduction with a social post expressing sadness and deep concern for her well-being and noted that Princeton is continuing “to urge the U.S. government to do everything it can to assist in bringing her home safely.”

For Narrelle Gilchrist, a third-year politics graduate student who also had classes with Tsurkov, the situation is “disturbing” and “surreal.”

“Sometimes it just doesn’t get talked about, and it’s like, we’re just going about life as normal, and the person who used to be right here — her life is in danger,” Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist and Oldham said the first priority is getting Tsurkov home safely, but the situation has also raised broader concerns among students around fieldwork. Gilchrist thinks this is an opportunity to ask questions such as how to prepare for fieldwork before departing, as well as “what can we do to support each other in these situations, because these kinds of things could happen to any of us.”