1923 - Assembly declares Turkey a republic and Kemal Ataturk as president.1928 - Turkey becomes secular: clause retaining Islam as state religion removed from constitution.
1925 - Adoption of Gregorian calendar. Prohibition of the fez.
1938 - President Ataturk dies, succeeded by Ismet Inonu.
1945 - Neutral for most of World War II, Turkey declares war on Germany and Japan, but does not take part in combat. Joins United Nations.
1950 - Republic's first open elections, won by opposition Democratic Party.
Military coups
1952 - Turkey abandons Ataturk's neutralist policy and joins Nato.
1960 - Army coup against ruling Democratic Party.
1961 - New constitution establishes two-chamber parliament.
1963 - Association agreement signed with European Economic Community (EEC).
1965 - Suleyman Demirel becomes prime minister - a position he is to hold seven times.
1971 - Army forces Demirel's resignation after spiral of political violence.
1974 - Turkish troops invade northern Cyprus.
1976 - Earthquake kills more than 5,000 people in western Van province.
1978 - US trade embargo resulting from invasion lifted.
1980 - Military coup follows political deadlock and civil unrest. Imposition of martial law.
1982 - New constitution creates seven-year presidency, and reduces parliament to single house.
1983 - General election won by Turgut Ozal's Motherland Party (ANAP).
PKK war
1984 - Turkey recognises "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus."
Kurdistan Workers' Party launches separatist guerrilla war in southeast.
1987 - Turkey applies for full EEC membership.
1990 - Turkey allows US-led coalition against Iraq to launch air strikes from Turkish bases.
1992 - 20,000 Turkish troops enter Kurdish safe havens in Iraq in anti-PKK operation.
Turkey joins Black Sea alliance.
1993 - Tansu Ciller becomes Turkey's first woman prime minister, and Demirel elected president.
Ceasefire with PKK breaks down.
1995 - Major military offensive launched against the Kurds in northern Iraq, involving some 35,000 Turkish troops.
Ciller coalition collapses. Pro-Islamist Welfare Party wins elections but lacks support to form government - two major centre-right parties form anti-Islamist coalition.
Turkey enters EU customs union.
1996 - Centre-right coalition falls. Welfare Party leader Necmettin Erbakan heads first pro-Islamic government since 1923.
1997 - Coalition resigns after campaign led by the military, replaced by a new coalition led by the centre-right Motherland Party of Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz.
ABDULLAH OCALAN, Kurdistan Workers' Party leader is serving a life sentence
1999: Jeremy Bowen on Ocalan arrest 1999: PM Ecevit says Ocalan to get fair trial
1998 January - Welfare Party - the largest in parliament - banned. Yilmaz resigns amid corruption allegations, replaced by Bulent Ecevit.
1999 February - PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan captured in Kenya.
1999 July - Ocalan receives death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment.
1999 August - Devastating earthquake with epicentre at Izmit in Turkey's heavily populated northwest kills 17,000 people.
1999 November - Second quake in same region kills hundreds more.
Into the new millennium
2000 - Ahmet Necdet Sezer takes over from Suleyman Demirel as president.
2001 January - Diplomatic row with France after French National Assembly recognises the killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
2001 May - European Court of Human Rights finds Turkey guilty of violating the rights of Greek Cypriots during its occupation of northern Cyprus.
2001 June - Constitutional Court bans opposition pro-Islamic Virtue Party, saying it had become focus of anti-secular activities. New pro-Islamist party Saadet is set up by former Virtue Party members in July.
2001 November - British construction firm Balfour Beatty and Impregilo of Italy pull out of the controversial Ilisu dam project. Swiss bank UBS follows suit in February 2002.
2002 January - Turkish men are no longer regarded in law as head of the family. The move gives women full legal equality with men, 66 years after women's rights were put on the statute books.
2002 March - Turkish and Greek governments sign an agreement to build a gas pipeline along which Turkey will supply Greece with gas.
2002 July - Pressure for early elections as eight ministers including Foreign Minister Cem resign over ailing PM Ecevit's refusal to step down amid growing economic, political turmoil. Cem launches new party committed to social democracy, EU membership.
2002 August - Parliament approves reforms aimed at securing EU membership. Death sentence to be abolished except in times of war and bans on Kurdish education, broadcasting to be lifted.
Islamist party victorious
2002 November - Islamist-based Justice and Development Party (AK) wins landslide election victory. Party promises to stick to secular principles of constitution. Deputy leader Abdullah Gul appointed premier.
2002 December - Constitutional changes allow head of ruling AK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to run for parliament, and so to become prime minister. He had been barred from public office because of previous criminal conviction.
2003 March - AK leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins seat in parliament. Within days Abdullah Gul resigns as prime minister and Erdogan takes over.
Parliament decides not to allow deployment of US forces ahead of war in Iraq but allows US use of Turkish air space. It authorises dispatch of Turkish forces into Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.
2003 May - More than 160 people, many of them schoolchildren trapped in a dormitory, die in an earthquake in the Bingol area.
2003 June/July - Eyeing future EU membership, parliament passes further laws easing restrictions on freedom of speech, Kurdish language rights, and on reducing political role of military.
Istanbul attacks
2003 November - 25 people are killed and more than 200 injured when two car bombs explode near Istanbul's main synagogue. Days later two co-ordinated suicide bombings at the British consulate and a British bank in the city kill 28 people.
2004 January - Turkey signs protocol banning death penalty in all circumstances, a move welcomed in EU circles.
2004 February - More than 60 people killed when apartment block in city of Konya collapses.
2004 March - At least two people killed in a suspected suicide attack on a building housing a Masonic lodge in Istanbul.
2004 June - Turkish state television broadcasts first Kurdish language programme.
Four Kurdish activists, including former MP Leyla Zana, freed from jail.
Nato heads of state gather for summit in Istanbul.
2004 July - Three die in car bomb attack in southeastern town of Van. Authorities accuse Kongra-Gel, formerly the PKK, of involvement which it denies.
2004 September - Parliament approves penal code reforms introducing tougher measures to prevent violence against women and torture. Controversial proposal on criminalising adultery dropped.
2004 December - EU leaders agree to open talks in 2005 on Turkey's EU accession. The decision, made at a summit in Brussels, follows a deal over an EU demand that Turkey recognise Cyprus as an EU member.
2005 January - New lira currency introduced as six zeroes are stripped from old lira, ending an era in which banknotes were denominated in millions.
ISTANBUL Europe meets Asia in Turkey's largest city Former capital of Byzantine, Ottoman empires 1930: Constantinople officially renamed Istanbul Population: 9.4 million
OTTOMAN EMPIRE Ottoman military band; empire lasted for more than 600 years Developed in late 13th century Extended into southeast Europe, north Africa, Middle East Replaced by Turkish Republic in 1922
KEMAL ATATURK Founder of Turkish republic; portraits of him still abound Born in 1881 President from 1923 Died in 1938
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1023189.stm
