Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan declared Thursday that protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square will be removed, dubbing them "lawbreakers".

Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan declared Thursday that protesters in Istanbul's Taksim Square will be removed, dubbing them "lawbreakers".

"This square belongs to the people of Istanbul, the people of the whole country, and to all international visitors. So we cannot allow lawbreakers to hang around freely in this square," Erdogan told local party leaders.

"We will clean the square," he said.

Rejecting the European Parliament's resolution that condemned "the disproportionate and excessive use of force" by Turkish riot police against demonstrators, Erdogan appeared determined to end two weeks of protests that have put an unflattering international spotlight on government and its handling of the biggest street unrest of his 10-year tenure.

The protests erupted May 31 after a violent police crackdown on a peaceful sit-in by activists objecting to a development project that would cut down the trees in Gezi Park, adjacent to Taksim Square, with a replica of Ottoman-era barracks.

The demonstrations then spread to dozens of cities, rallying tens of thousands of people each night, and broadened to a protest over Erdogan's overall rule.
Police have repeatedly fired water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters; five people have died and over 5,000 have been injured. The government says 600 police were injured as well.

Protesters who have camped out in a peaceful sit-in in Gezi Park remained on site Thursday. Their continued presence by the hundreds has served as a base for large numbers of protesters who have congregated by the thousands on Taksim Square — usually in the evening, after work.

Also Thursday, 26-year-old Ethem Sarisuluk — who had been on life support for days — was pronounced dead, according to family lawyer Sema Aksoy. He was believed to have been hit in the head by a tear gas canister on June 1 during protests in Ankara, though lawyers were going to sit in on the autopsy to verify the exact circumstances leading to his death.