And I'm supposed to take this at face value, without this being corroborated by different news outlets? For all I know, the people from both sides of this matter are trying to social engineer me into being on their side. I am not on either's side.
However, there was a near blackout for the first few DAYS of the protest and the only news was social media. I, too, have friends in Istanbul and have been given first hand accounts. The number of apolitical members of this protest are staggering. As a friend said, the generation was brought up to be apolitical after their parents had grown up in an over-politicized and protest-heavy culture that led to the coup and horror stories of abuse of political prisoners.
(BTW, everyone I've talked to only decided to go out after the tear gassing had been started; the demonstration was in support of the demonstration rather than the original Gezi Parki protest.)