NYC man fatally stabbed while on vacation in Turkey

An Upper West Sider with a passion for wildlife photography was allegedly murdered by the owner of a bed and breakfast while on vacation in Turkey, and friends are frantically lobbying for his body to be returned home for a proper Jewish burial.Yitzhak “Igor” Alishayiv, 46, was a “gentle, trusting” friend to all in his tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community with a passion for nature, which drew him every year to the remote Gundogmus section of the southern Antalya region, some 400 miles south of Istanbul, to pursue his penchant for nature.Alishayiv hoped to see Uçansu Waterfall, known locally as the flying waterfall.“He was a mountaineer – not a city guy,” said a longtime city friend, adding he had a soft spot for animals.

“He always called them ‘sin-free.’”But on May 3, less than two weeks into his intended six-week adventure, Alishayiv got into a heated, booze-filled argument with Ismail Kara, the owner of the bed and breakfast where he was staying for $30 a night, family and friends told The Post.As the squabble escalated, an enraged Kara stabbed Alishayiv in the chest with a knife, Turkish media reported.

It’s unclear what the two were arguing about.He was arrested for the grisly murder less than a week later, according to Turkish media.“We’re all in shock – no one could have imagined this would happen,” said Sara Shulevitz Vorhand, a criminal defense attorney who co-heads the Congregation Heichal Moshe synagogue on West 91st Street, where Alishayiv worked as a custodian.“We’re desperately trying to get the body back so we could properly say goodbye to him,” she said, noting that Jewish law calls for immediate burial.Dealing with delays and bureaucracy has been “frustrating,” added Vorhand, noting that friends are “not getting straight answers about the status of the investigation” as the body remains in an Antalya forensic lab.The friends also believe Turkish officials being completely transparent, ...