Turkish protest: Chronology of the main events

Turkish police stormed an Istanbul protest square on Tuesday as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cracked down on thousands of anti-government demonstrators.

Thousands have been injured and four people have died in almost two weeks of protests against Erdogan and his Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP), in power since 2002.

Following are the main events since the protest movement began:

May 28: A peaceful local protest begins against plans to redevelop Gezi Park, near Taksim Square in Istanbul.

May 31: The rally erupts into violence when riot police fire tear gas to clear hundreds of demonstrators.

June 1: Protesters and police clash again. Police fire more tear gas at demonstrators who hurl rocks and bottles.

The unrest spreads to other cities.

Erdogan withdraws police from Taksim Square but remains defiant over the park plan.

June 2: Erdogan calls protesters "vandals" and lashes out at the social messaging service Twitter used by many protesters, branding it a "troublemaker".

June 3: President Abdullah Gul tells protesters their message has been "received".

A medics' union says a man was killed when a car ploughed into protesters in Istanbul a day earlier.

Erdogan embarks on a four-day North African tour.

June 4: Police and protesters clash in Istanbul and Ankara.

The reported death toll rises to two.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologises to those injured in clashes with police.

June 5: Thousands of striking teachers, doctors and bank staff pack the streets of Turkish cities, calling for Erdogan's resignation.

Protest representatives meet with Arinc in Ankara.

June 6: The private NTV news channel says a policeman died a day earlier after injuring himself in a fall linked to the unrest.

Istanbul witnesses its first lull in a week.

Erdogan tells reporters in Tunis there are "extremists, some of them implicated in terrorism" among the protesters.

June 7: Erdogan is greeted by thousands of supporters in Istanbul when he returns to Turkey.

June 8: Tens of thousands, including supporters of rival football clubs Galatasaray, Besiktas and Fenerbahce, rally peacefully in Taksim Square.

In Ankara, police fire tear gas to disperse some 10,000 demonstrators.

The government rules out calling early elections.

The national doctors' union says the unrest has injured almost 4,800 people.

Istanbul's mayor says Gezi Park will not be turned into a shopping mall, as some feared, but that the reconstruction of an Ottoman army barracks will go ahead.

June 9: Erdogan hold six rallies in three cities to fire up supporters. He tells crowds his patience "has a limit" as police fire tear gas and jets of water at demonstrators in Istanbul and Ankara.

June 10: Erdogan agrees to meet with protest leaders in coming days in his first major concession since the unrest began.

The Turkish BIST-100 stock index closes at 76,386.19 points, a drop of 15.64 percent in two weeks.

June 11: Hundreds of riot police storm Taksim Square, firing tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets at demonstrators who hurl back stones, fireworks and molotov cocktails.

Erdogan says three protesters and one police officer have been killed in 12 days of clashes and warns he has "no more tolerance" for the demos.