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Elizabeth Tsurkov

Elizabeth Tsurkov is a research fellow at the Center for Global Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank, where she specializes in the Levant. A doctoral student in political science at Princeton University, she has also worked as a consultant with the International Crisis Group, Freedom House, the Atlantic Council, and the European Institute for Peace, among other institutions. (October 2020)

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The Syrian Mercenaries Abroad

The nearly decade-long civil war has created an entire generation of young men whose only marketable skill is fighting.

October 16, 2020

Who Are Turkey’s Proxy Fighters in Syria?

Mazen, a Levant Front fighter, used the third person to describe his faction’s participation in Turkey’s Syrian intervention: “they [the SNA fighters] are employees of the Turkish state to protect its border.” Then he switched to the first person: “The Turks are using us as cannon fodder. We’ve become mercenaries.”

November 27, 2019

A Survey of Syria’s Alawi Sect

The regime’s heavy reliance on Alawis in the army units and militias dispatched to the front-lines, coupled with the community’s relatively small size, have resulted in disproportionate losses of the sect’s young men.

July 22, 2019

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