An Higher West Sider with a ardour for wildlife images was allegedly murdered by the proprietor of a mattress and breakfast whereas on trip in Turkey, and mates are frantically lobbying for his physique to be returned dwelling for a correct Jewish burial.
Yitzhak “Igor” Alishayiv, 46, was a “light, trusting” good friend to all in his tight-knit Orthodox Jewish neighborhood with a ardour for nature, which drew him yearly to the distant Gundogmus part of the southern Antalya area, some 400 miles south of Istanbul, to pursue his penchant for nature.
Alishayiv hoped to see Uçansu Waterfall, recognized regionally because the flying waterfall. “He was a mountaineer – not a metropolis man,” stated a longtime metropolis good friend, including he had a tender spot for animals. “He all the time referred to as them ‘sin-free.’”
However on Could 3, lower than two weeks into his supposed six-week journey, Alishayiv received right into a heated, booze-filled argument with Ismail Kara, the proprietor of the mattress and breakfast the place he was staying for $30 an evening, household and mates instructed The Submit.
Because the squabble escalated, an enraged Kara stabbed Alishayiv within the chest with a knife, Turkish media reported. It’s unclear what the 2 had been arguing about. He was arrested for the grisly homicide lower than every week later, in line with Turkish media.
“We’re all in shock – nobody might have imagined this could occur,” stated Sara Shulevitz Vorhand, a prison protection legal professional who co-heads the Congregation Heichal Moshe synagogue on West 91st Road, the place Alishayiv labored as a custodian.
“We’re desperately making an attempt to get the physique again so we might correctly say goodbye to him,” she stated, noting that Jewish regulation requires quick burial.
Coping with delays and forms has been “irritating,” added Vorhand, noting that mates are “not getting straight solutions concerning the standing of the investigation” because the physique stays in an Antalya forensic lab.
The buddies additionally imagine Turkish officers being fully clear, elevating the likelihood that he was killed sooner than publicly reported, because the final contact he had with anybody was April 28, in line with textual content messages shared with The Submit.
Turkish authorities dominated out antisemitism as a motive, in line with Turkiye Immediately.
Nonetheless, mates stated they warned Alishayiv to be on excessive alert as a result of elevated antisemitism within the predominantly Muslim nation forward of his journey, which he’s made for the previous few years.
“We had been all the time nervous when he went, however he all the time got here again secure and completely happy,” Vorhand stated, noting that his standing as a twin citizen of Israel might make him a “goal.”
Additionally, Alishayiv introduced alongside some $40,000 price of digital camera gear, and his mates additionally suspect that his surprising loss of life was a “setup” to steal the dear lenses.
“He was thought of rich there – it’s a really poor space,” stated a good friend who held cash for the photographer, who was loath to journey with money on him.
“He took every thing he owned to Turkey, and we don’t know the place his cameras are,” added the good friend.
The final contact from Alishayiv — who friends described as an “harmless soul who solely noticed the great in individuals” – was a textual content asking the chum to wire just a few hundred {dollars}.
Radio character Rabbi Zev Brenner instructed The Submit he’s been in contact with the mayor’s workplace and the state division to assist retrieve the physique. “It’s a tragic story, and the neighborhood is rising pissed off, compounded by the truth that we don’t have any finality.”
Brenner, who knew Alishayiv for a decade, stated a violent drunken battle would have been uncharacteristic.
“Igor wasn’t a drinker,” stated Brenner, who described him as a wholesome, hulking “ox” with a “very sturdy construct.
“It doesn’t make any sense. One thing’s not kosher about this story.”
Supply hyperlink
