Russian Dad Fears Missing Daughter Ran Away To Join ISIS

ISTANBUL -- It’s been a week since Pavel Karaulov has heard from his daughter, Varvara Karaulova, a shy 19-year-old philosophy student from Moscow State University. Now, he doesn’t know if he will ever see her again.

“I’m desperate,” he said, his voice shaking over a crackling Skype call from Moscow. “As soon as I can jump on a plane, I’ll be there.”

Pavel went to Russian authorities, who were able to track the phone Varvara was using to Turkey. He said they determined that Varvara boarded a one-way flight to Istanbul on May 27 -- often the first leg of a journey for Islamic State recruits that ends in Syria. Her father is worried the teen may have been recruited by extremists.

If joining the terror group is her goal, it would make Varvara one of many young women who have been lured into Syria’s bloody conflict by groups like the Islamic State, which use Turkey as an entry point to the country’s war-ravaged neighbor.

But even if Syria is not the teen’s destination, her father’s panic is a window into the global paranoia and desperation stoked by the extremist group, also called ISIS.