How this current crisis triggers Turkey. Perhaps we are overemphasizing the role the state plays in the COVID-19 crisis: in Turkey, at least, most people did the right thing in extraordinary situations that demanded entirely different responses: in one instance, taking shelter at home for public good, and in another, taking to the streets to defend democracy. If the next few months do indeed reveal increased governmental thirst for surveillance around the world, they may more lastingly show how masses can reclaim their agency not by refusing all state-initiated lockdowns but only those that, without good scientific reason, curtail their freedoms.