Washington (AP) – Graduate student at Princeton University Invited in Iraq While conducting research in 2023, she was released and handed over to US authorities, her family and authorities said Tuesday.
Elizabeth TulkovThe Israeli and Russian citizens were pursuing a doctoral degree focused on regional sectarianism, and were detained for more than 900 days after disappearing in Iraq’s capital Baghdad.
She was “torturing for months” before being handed over to the US embassy in Baghdad, President Donald Trump said in a social media post identifying prisoners of war from Kataib Hezbollah. part of an Iran-backed alliance of militias It is officially part of Iraq’s army, but in reality it often acts on its own. The US government listed groups in 2009 that did not claim to lure them as terrorist organizations.
Tulkov’s sister, Emma, is a US citizen who campaigned for her release, and she said she was in Washington for a meeting this week when she heard the news from Adam Berer, the special envoy of the US special president for hostage issues.
The sisters could be connected by phone and hoped they would be reunited in the next 24 hours, but details were still settled, Emma Tulkov said.
“I heard her for the first time in two and a half years and still couldn’t believe it. It just melted on the floor,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I heard her, she heard me, it was the most enjoyable experience of my life and we both began sobbing and screaming.”
What Iraqi officials say about Tulkov’s release
The two Iraqi militia officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were not permitted to speak publicly about the incident and were released as a result of negotiations, rather than a military operation to free her.
Officials said one of the conditions for her release was the withdrawal of US troops currently stationed in Iraq, agreed between Washington and Baghdad last year, and that the US and Israel would not start strikes in Iraq.
Speaking to Tulkov’s family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “The whole of Israel is pleased to see her return.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Sheer Al Sudani In a post on X, he said that Tsurkov’s release was “the pinnacle of the widespread efforts that security services have exerted over the years.”
“We once again reaffirm that we will not tolerate compromise in enforcing the law and endorsing national authority, and we will not allow anyone to undermine the reputation of Iraq and its people,” he said.
Al Sudani came to power in 2022 with support of a coalition of Shia political parties linked to Iran, but has since tried to balance Washington and Tehran relations. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, he said he called for a close ties with the Trump administration.
One of the most complicated questions for Al Sudani is how to deal with popular mobilization power, a largely Shia Iran-backed alliance of militias formed to fight Islamic state groups. The coalition was officially deployed under Iraqi military control in 2016, but in fact operates with significant autonomy. Kataib Hezbollah is part of PMF.
Iraq’s parliament was recently considering legislation that solidified ties between the military and the PMF and challenged it from Washington. The law has not advanced to the vote.
A spokesman for the Iraqi Army said in a statement that “following exceptional security and intelligence efforts,” authorities were able to “find a location” where Tulkov is being held.
Tulkov disappeared in March 2023
Elizabeth Tulkov is a regional affairs expert who has been widely cited by the international media for many years and entered Iraq with a Russian passport to pursue his research.
She made her last Twitter post on March 21, 2023, when she recirculated photos of pro-Kurdistan protesters in Syria. Emma Tulkov said she understands that a few days after undergoing spinal surgery, her sister went to a coffee shop in the central neighborhood of Baghdad, in her body.
The only direct evidence of Elizabeth Tulkov’s life in her captivity is Video broadcast in November 2023 It was distributed on Iraqi television stations to Iranian social media aimed at showing her. However, officials from multiple countries have confirmed that she is alive in recent months.
Last spring, there were reports that negotiators were approaching the deal and were focusing on exchanges, but Emma Tulkov said at the time that an agreement was not imminent.
Trump signed an executive order on Friday allowing the United States to designate the nation as a national sponsor for illegal detention, and will use the threat of related sanctions to prevent Americans from detaining them.
One of the provisions specifically noted that the order applies to cases in which the government is responsible for or conspires for “unjust or illegal detention of third country citizens when the United States is in national interest.”
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Associated Press author Abby Sewell in Beirut, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
