Turkish trade unions urged their members to walk out of work on Monday and join demonstrations in response to a widespread police crackdown against activists following weeks of street protests.

However, the interior minister issued a stark warning to organisers of the one-day walkout which is aimed at maintaining pressure on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government.

"I am calling on public workers and labourers to not participate in unlawful demonstrations – otherwise they will bear the legal consequences," Muammer Güler said. "Our police will be on duty as usual."

A day earlier, riot police cordoned off streets, set up roadblocks and fired tear gas and water cannons to prevent anti-government protesters from converging on Istanbul's central Taksim Square, while a few miles away Erdoğan addressed hundreds of thousands of government supporters.

Police on Monday maintained a lockdown on Taksim, the centre of more than two weeks of protests, by barring vehicles. However, as the working week began, authorities re-opened a subway station at the square that had been closed on Sunday when protesters tried to regroup.

Two of Turkey's largest labour movements urged members to walk out of their jobs on Monday afternoon and converge at the square.

In the capital Ankara overnight, riot police fired teargas and water cannons against thousands of protesters, the latest violence in a more than two-week standoff that started as an environmentalist rally but later morphed into a broader protest against Erdoğan's government.

Five people, including a policeman, have died and more than 5,000 have been injured, according to a Turkish rights group.

On Saturday, riot police cleared Istanbul's Gezi Park, next to Taksim Square, ending an 18-day sit-in by protesters against plans to redevelop the park.

Erdoğan, who has been praised for shepherding Turkey to strong economic growth as many other world economies have lagged, has seen his international reputation dented over his government's handling of the situation. He has blamed the protests on a nebulous plot to destabilise his government and has repeatedly lashed out at reports in foreign media and chatter in social media about the situation.