By Donald Gilpin

Princeton University graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov was kidnapped by a Shi’a militia group in Iraq two years ago on March 21, and government officials and her family have recently renewed efforts to secure her release.

Last week New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim and Tsurkov’s sister, Emma Tsurkov, held a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, calling on the Trump administration and the Iraqi government to work quickly to bring about Tsurkov’s immediate and safe return home.

A doctoral candidate in the Princeton University Department of Politics specializing in Syria and the Middle East, Tsurkov, 38, was kidnapped by the Iran-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah, a group considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. She was in Bagdad at the time conducting academic research for her dissertation. Tsurkov holds both Russian and Israeli passports, but had lived in the U.S. since 2017 and has been enrolled at Princeton University since 2019.

At last week’s press conference, Kim stated, “I wanted to make sure I stood alongside this family to highlight to the American people and to the people in Iraq and around the world why it is we need to pay attention to what happened to Elizabeth Tsurkov. What I also know by having worked on issues related to Iraq for so long is that the Iraqi government can and should be doing more right now to be able to get Elizabeth freed. That is something that our government and our administration needs to hold up as an important priority in our bilateral engagements with the government of Iraq.”

Emma Tsurkov emphasized, “Elizabeth is not just a headline, or a diplomatic challenge, she is our sister. To the Iraqi government and to Prime Minister Sudani, I must speak plainly, your failure to secure my sister’s release is unacceptable. Your promises of action have yielded nothing. You have a fundamental responsibility to protect those within your borders, including academics conducting legitimate research.”

Kim also teamed up with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker last week to send a letter to President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Middle East Special Envoy Steven Witkoff, urging them to continue to pursue negotiations for Tsurkov’s release. In addition, Kim joined Booker, Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, and California Sen. Adam Schiff in issuing a statement calling for Tsurkov’s release and describing her as “a vocal and principled expert, journalist, and political scientist who traveled to Iraq to conduct fieldwork for her doctoral dissertation on strategies to reduce conflict and foster peace in the Middle East.”

The statement stressed, “There is no justification for hostage taking, and it is horrifically egregious to kidnap a brave advocate for peace and coexistence in the region.”

Princeton University also weighed in last week, in an email from Assistant Vice President for Communications Michael Hotchkiss. “On this second anniversary of the kidnapping of our graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov, Princeton University remains gravely concerned about her continued captivity,” he wrote. ”The University is grateful for the Administration’s focus on securing her release, and we appreciate that top State Department and White House officials have been directly involved. We fervently hope that these efforts will lead to Elizabeth’s return to Princeton in the very near future.”

In a March 25 article, The New Arab (newarab.com), an English language news and current events website, reported that earlier in the month the U.S. had refused a prisoner exchange deal that would have freed Tsurkov, because the deal would have released prisoners linked to Iran and could also have financed Iran-backed activities in the region.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz on March 24 reported that an Iraqi official had told Asharq al-Awsat, an Arab international newspaper headquartered in London, that the Iraqi government is working to win Tsurkov’s release through negotiations “with ‘friendly mediators’ and in accordance with the law.”

Haaretz noted that since January Israel has ramped up diplomatic efforts to secure Tsurkov’s release, following a November 2024 airing of a video on Iraq’s Al Rabiaa TV. In the video Tsurkov is seen calling for action to secure her release and for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Tsurkov, who in addition to her graduate studies is also a researcher for the Forum for Regional Thinking in Israel and the Newline Institute in Washington, wrote on her website before her abduction: “My research is informed by the desire to understand and convey the points of view and experiences of people in the Middle East, and highlight abuses by powerful actors, whether they are dictatorial regimes, armed groups, or foreign countries intervening in the region.”

She continued, “I have over a decade of experience in volunteering and working for human rights organizations in the Middle East, fighting for the rights of Palestinians, refugees, and migrants, torture survivors, human trafficking victims, and ethnic and religious minorities.”