Ms. Cevik, in Abbasaga Park, is one of thousands who show up each evening to brainstorm about ways to get politically organized around basic principles like democracy, equality and human rights before local elections in nine months. “Istanbul is the heart of Turkey,” she said. “We should be able to send at least one independent candidate of ours from this city to Parliament in upcoming elections.”

A large crowd waved hands to applaud as she turned the stage over to an older man who wanted to share his experience in Turkey’s long struggle for democracy after at least three military interventions. “We do not have time to lose,” said the man, who identified himself only as a 58-year-old “democracy veteran.” “Young people should get engaged in politics and try to win over government supporters.”

Many of the speakers in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, have withheld their names as the police continue to track down protesters. More than 75 people have been formally charged with violating the law on public protests during the riots, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, based in Istanbul, said in a report late last month.

Also last month, the Turkish Ministry of Communication contacted Twitter and Facebook, seeking copies of messages that users in Turkey exchanged during protests — a request that both companies declined, news reports said. And the transportation ministry planned to form a special unit to monitor social media for crimes committed online, a pro-government newspaper, Yeni Safak, reported Tuesday.

Twitter and Facebook are still the main tools of information exchange among protesters, who have accused Turkey’s mainstream news media of censorship and failing to adequately cover the uprising. So around 200 people who converged on a green slope in Kugulu, or Swan, Park in Ankara waved their hands for Unver Coskun, an electronics engineer, when he suggested reaching out to the elderly to inform them about political conversations on social media sites.

“We need to safeguard ballot boxes, link with other forums, create lists of volunteers who would contact elderly people or others that do not use the Internet,” Mr. Coskun said.

Close to midnight on a recent Thursday, couples, parents and children filled benches in the bowl-shaped Kugulu Park — which protesters had used as a base until the police pushed them out of their tents and removed their banners and posters.