20. Vindictive Karma Catches Up With Monsters
As World War I raged, the Ottoman Turk authorities sought to end the restiveness of their oppressed Armenian citizens by ending the Armenians via genocide. They carried it out under the guise of “relocating” them from border regions to the interior of their empire. The Ottomans subjected the Armenians to massacres and death marches, interrupted by widespread and horrendous abuses that claimed the lives of one million to one and a half million victims. After Turkey’s defeat and surrender at war’s end, desultory efforts were made to bring those responsible to account. However, no international tribunal existed to try the criminals, and their prosecution in Turkish courts eventually petered out because of domestic politics.
At the end of WWI, an Ottoman military tribunal sentenced the principal leaders responsible for the Armenian Genocide to death. However, the condemned were freed at the end of the trial. They promptly fled to Europe, where they lived under assumed names. Thus, those who had orchestrated the genocide escaped formal justice and were able to travel relatively freely throughout much of Europe and Central Asia. As seen below, karma caught up with at least some of the key killers when Armenian activists brought them to account, vigilante-style.