Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned protesters occupying a central Istanbul park that they should leave before Sunday or face eviction by security forces.
"We have our Istanbul rally tomorrow. I say it clearly: Taksim Square must be evacuated, otherwise this country's security forces know how to evacuate it," Erdogan told thousands of supporters at a rally in the capital Ankara on Saturday.
Erdogan flexed his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party's muscles in the rally organised hours after sit-in protesters in Gezi Park rebuked the government’s calls for them to leave their position.
Turkey has been in turmoil since late May after a sit-in protest against an urban development project in the heart of Istanbul transformed into countrywide anti-government demonstrations.
In the AK Party rally in Ankara, the prime minister also accused "a network of treachery" of being responsible for the unrest that has gripped the country for more than two weeks.
Erdogan said that the protests are not about the environment, as those in Taksim Square say, but are part of a plot "coordinated inside and outside" Turkey.
Read more: Turkey's Erdogan issues sit-in deadline - Europe - Al Jazeera English
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