Thanks for the comments guys. In a few minutes, I'll be meeting with a friend who was there for the protest in Taksim. I wonder what was it like. I kinda feel guilty for not being there.
I will be going to Istanbul this Thursday for a week on holiday. I'm just going to avoid getting too close to protest areas. Good luck in the protests, however. I wish you all the best.
There are some calmer sections of the city but you'll see lots of people who are walking on the street. Some places look like this:
Government has shut down some of the public transportation services so most people are just walking. Protestors are mostly helpful but there are some people who are just trouble-seeking bastards walking around.
Also AKP-fanatics are beating anyone who looks like a protestor in Tophane. I think the Asian side of İstanbul is a lot more calmer. Beware of Beşiktaş too, people who are trying to regroup with the Taksim protest group is clashing with the police there. People in Ankara and İzmir are protesting too. This was taken from İzmir.
I can't be sure about what places are safe because... my favorite news channel was holding a discussion with 4 people while all this was happening and the topic of discussion: "What we should eat to stay healthy?". It's currently talking about football. Erdoğan appeared on the TV and told a bunch of lies about how nobody was seriously injured and he said the death reports were all lies. The bad thing is, there are people who are not aware of social media (old people mostly) and they are probably falling for this shit.
This is what people thinks of Turkish media.
From left to right, it says "Tayyip <3 NTV" "SOLD" "LIE NEWS" "SOLD...BASTARDS".
Only a few channels are showing what's going on.
Halk TV (literal translation: People TV) are showing what's going on all the time.
Some... interesting pics I managed to find.