TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN HAS GONE TOO FAR: When I wrote my weekly Creators Syndicate column yesterday I thought he might. The column concludes with this line:

…Erdogan retained his power because the Turkish people believe in their democracy. If he has any sense of his duties and his place in history, he will curb his quest for personal power and commit himself to protecting the system that saved him.

In the last 24 hours, he has done just the opposite. When I wrote the column the 6,000 figure for security personnel actually under arrest was the firmest figure I could find. The total number under arrest was believed to be over 8,000. According to this CNN report those numbers are up a bit (9,400 in the CNN report). Most news reports say Erdogan has purged 50,000 to 60,000 people — ie, fired people from their jobs. The purge figure includes suspended police and other security personnel.

Here is a Turkish news website (in English) I read: hurriyetdailynews.com

A current article says the government has arrested two people for praising the coup on social media.