ANKARA — Dozens of Kurdish and Turkish activists came together silently in Ankara May 20 to discuss efforts to revive the Kurdish settlement process, which collapsed into bloodshed two years ago. The gathering — held without much publicity in the highly charged political climate that prevails in Turkey today — was part of a fledgling civic initiative that seeks to strengthen Turkish-Kurdish dialogue on the grassroots level and encourage skeptic Turks to see the Kurdish problem beyond the violence of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The initiative comes amid recent reports that Ankara might consider jumpstarting the settlement effort, but this time without the PKK — which both Turkey and much of the international community consider a terrorist organization.

After peace negotiations ended in tatters in July 2015, Ankara launched a ferocious crackdown on urban PKK militants holed up behind trenches and barricades in residential neighborhoods in the Kurdish-majority southeast, leaving urban areas in ruins and thousands of civilians displaced. On the political front, hundreds of members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), including both of its co-chairs, landed behind bars on charges of collaborating with the PKK, while dozens of Kurdish-run local administrations were handed over to government-appointed trustees.

In such a gloomy atmosphere, reviving peace initiatives seems an uphill task, but the activists in Ankara are convinced that Turks and Kurds have no other option but to pick up the pieces and resolve their problems through dialogue.