2013
•May 31: A sit-in protest against plans to raze Gezi Park adjacent to Taksim Square in Istanbul erupts into violence when police break it up and burn demonstrators’ tents.
•The crackdown sparks protests that spread nationwide. The ensuing clashes leave eight people dead and at least 8,000 wounded. Around 5,000 people are arrested.
•Over three weeks, 2.5 million people rally across Turkey to demand that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan resign.
•November 13: Mr Erdogan confronts US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, a one-time ally with prominent followers in the police and justice system, by announcing he will close his network of college preparatory schools, a major source of income and recruiting ground for the Gulen movement.
•December 17: Turkish police detain dozens of people close to Mr Erdogan as part of a probe into bribery in construction projects, gold smuggling and alleged illicit money transfers to Iran.
•Mr Erdogan calls the probe a “dirty” operation to smear his government and blames followers of Gulen.
December 25: Erdogan announces a cabinet reshuffle, replacing almost half his key ministers after three of them resigned.
2014
•February 5: The Turkish parliament, dominated by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), increases controls first over the Internet, then over judges 10 days later
•February 24: Leaked phone taps by Turkish police suggest Mr Erdogan and his son Bilal tried to hide large sums of money.
•March 20: The government blocks Twitter to stop a daily drip of excerpts from apparently compromising telephone conversations attributed to Erdogan. Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who co-founded the AKP with Erdogan in 2001, denounces the censorship, as do a host of world leaders.
•March 26: An Ankara court overturns the Twitter ban.
* Agence France-Presse
