ANKARA, Turkey — Binali Yildirim had been prime minister only two weeks when suicide bombers from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its affiliate, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, detonated two car bombs — one in Istanbul, one in Midyat, southeast Turkey. They killed 18 people.

“These days, the news comes, directly or indirectly, from the terrorist organization saying, ‘We can negotiate, we can lay down arms, we should talk,’” Yildirim told reporters. The government rebuffed the PKK because, he said, “There is nothing to discuss."

Neither Selahattin Demirtas, co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), nor academics who study the Kurds said that they had seen any evidence of a peace overture by the PKK. Academics have also said, however, that such a peace move was plausible because the PKK had good reason to return to the negotiating table. The same goes for the government. By official count, Turkey's security forces have suffered nearly 600 fatalities and 3,000 wounded since fighting resumed in July 2015. In this case, why haven’t both sides put out feelers on peace talks?

Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based analyst for the Silk Road Studies Program, told Al-Monitor the PKK’s interest in peace is sincere. “This is not because the PKK particularly likes peace, but it’s because the PKK is so heavily committed in Syria and Iraq,” Jenkins said, referring to the campaign against the Islamic State being waged by the PKK and its Syrian affiliate. “The PKK doesn’t have the resources to conduct a third front.” Further, he argued, “The object of the [PKK] campaign of violence has been to pressure the Turkish government into talks.”