Foreign Minister Iraq Fuad Hussein told the American news site Axios that the Israeli Elizabeth Tsurkova, stolen about two years ago in Baghdad, was making efforts to release her.
Earlier, the publication of Washington Post wrote that Israel has activated efforts to liberate Tsurkova. In this process, officials from the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Canada working in Baghdad are involved. According to the Israeli side, changes in the Middle Eastern region that have occurred over the past months give hope that negotiations will lead to the liberation of Elizabeth Tsurkova.
According to the Arab media, since March 2023, Tsurkov has been holding as a hostage to the Right Shiite Group “Kataib Hizball”. The publication Al-Arabi al-Jadid wrote in the spring of 2024 that she was transferred to a certain place outside Baghdad, which is “under the control of influential armed groups.” Al-Arab al-Jadid quoted the statement of the anonymous representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Iraq: “During a special investigation of the fate of the stolen Israeli, Elizaveta Tsurkova, it ultimately found out that she was transferred beyond the bogdad to the area controlled by influential armed groups, which indicates that, which indicates that that she is alive and is held by the famous Iraqi group … Despite difficulties, the investigation continues. ” According to this official, Tsurkov was at that time in the province of Babil, in the center of Iraq.
In November 2023, the Iraqi television channel “Ar-Era” published a video with Tsurkova. It was represented by the television channel as an Israeli, although she also has a Russian passport. In the video lasting a little more than four minutes, Tsurkova speaks in Hebrew, her speech is translated into Arabic. In particular, she states that she worked for Mosad and the CIA. As evidence that the video was recently shot, Tsurkova mentions the war in the Gaza sector. The words that the hostage pronounces, apparently, were written for her.
After it became known about the abduction of Elizabeth Tsurkova in Baghdad, the press service of the office of the head of the Israeli government spread the message: “She is a scientist who arrived at Iraq on Russian passport and on her own initiative to protect the doctoral dissertation and research for Princeton University in the United States” .
It should be noted that Elizaveta Tsurkova was an employee of the “Forum of Regional Analysis” of the Israeli Research Institute “MOLOD”, the Washington Institute of Center for Global Policy, specialized in the study of the conflict in Syria. She collaborated with many media, including contacting our editors. In March 2023, she was captured by the police of the Iraqi Hizballa in the north of Iraq, where she came to collect material for writing a doctorship.
In March 2021, Elizabeth wrote on her Twitter that she was against transactions for the exchange of prisoners, even if her next visit to Syria or Iraq would not go as planned.
Al-monitor about the fate of Elizabeth Tsurkova: for the kidnappers, she is a “trump card”, Netanyahu turned to Putin
The AL-monitor publication published details about the abduction of Elizabeth Tsurkova.
The article by Amberin Zaman said that Tsurkov was abducted in Baghdad on March 21, 2023. At the same time, it was noted that by that time Elizabeth had been in the capital of Iraq for a long time, and eight days before the abduction she underwent surgery to one of the Baghdad hospitals in connection with the injury of the back. It is known that in Baghdad, Tsurkova interviewed the supporters of the influential leader of the local Shiites of the Muktada al-Sadra.
According to Al-Monitor, Elizabeth Tsurkov was abducted by representatives of the Shiite paramilitary group “Asib Ahl Al-Hakk” (“League of the Righteous”, included by the US authorities in the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2020), related to the Iranian “Corps of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution” and the incoming ” The Iraqi “detachments of folk mobilization” (ONM) formed to combat the Sunni “Islamic state”.
The Israeli government stated that Elizabeth Tsurkov was captured by the police of the Right Shiite Group “Kataib Hizball”, acting in the nominee. This organization was recognized by the United States as terrorist back in 2009.
Israeli authorities say that Tsurkova entered Iraq according to her Russian passport. It is known that she did this repeatedly in the past.
AL-monitor sources claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directly involved in attempts to achieve the liberation of Tsurkova through Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The same sources said that there was no doubt that the militias who stole Tsurkov acted in agreement with the Iranian authorities and expect to “use it as a trump card to exchange prisoners or other concessions.”
2016 scandal
In 2016, a scandal was associated with the name of Elizabeth Zurkova, which led to the resignation of the speaker of the Syrian rebel group “Army of Islam” of Islam Allash. Then Tsurkova became the first Israeli, who managed to take an interview with Allash. The publication of an interview in which the representative of the Syrian Islamists did not oppose the peace agreement between Syria and Israel, caused a noticeable resonance in the Arab media and led to his resignation. Elizabeth explained the editorial office of Newsru.co.il that all her interlocutors in Syria remained anonymous out of fear that their words or just communication with an Israeli could poorly affect their fate. However, in this case, according to Tsurkova, the speaker of the Islam Army said that he was acting as an official representative of the group and gave permission to use his name. In the course of the interview, the nature of the group, the attitude of the Islamist-Sunnits towards Alavit Bashar Assad and the Shiite “Hizballle”, as well as the opinion of the “army of Islam” on the political resolution of the Syrian conflict, was discussed. At the end of the interview, Tsurkova asked Allash about what the position of the “army of Islam” about the prospect of a peace agreement between Syria and Israel. “This and other issues regarding Syria’s foreign policy will be resolved by state bodies created after the victory of the revolution and free elections, during which the Syrian people will appoint their representatives. We will not be those who will deprive the Syrians of the opportunity to make decisions, as more than 40 years old Assad dynasty, ”Islam Allush answered this question. Soon after the publication of the interview, it was transferred to Arabic and published on the Israeli Arab website Al-Masdar. According to Tsurkova, they did not ask her the original interview and published a translation from the translation, which, in turn, began to reprint the Syrian government media, making their amendments to the text and claiming that the “army of Islam” is ready to conclude peace with Israel. When the noise began in the Arab media, Elizabeth hastened to publish the original text of Alleusha on social networks, and also gave several explanatory interviews to the opposition Syrian media, but in the evening Allush announced his departure from the post of Spiker “Army of Islam”. Then Elizaveta Tsurkova said that the Israelis’s contacts were necessary with the Syrians, since such a close neighborhood and the tragedy that is happening in Syria cannot but influence the situation both in Israel and in the region as a whole.