I’ve said it since the wars in Iraq and Syria began, but it’s important to repeat it again: the Peshmerga and the PKK are not one and the same. The PKK is a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary terrorist organization. The Peshmerga are respected soldiers of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq.

Case in point: the leaders of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq are calling on the PKK to get out of their lands.

The PKK terrorist group is destabilizing northern Syria in its bid to establish itself there, Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said late Thursday. Speaking during a conference in Dohuk town of semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, Barzani said the PKK also needs to retreat from northern Iraqi region of Sinjar.

“It is not acceptable for them to stay in Sinjar, under the guise of protecting the Yazidi people,” the prime minister said. “Our Syrian Kurdish brothers helped us to take back Sinjar and we thanked them for it. But the PKK should not stay there. They are the main source of destabilization in the region.”

He even went on to say that refugees from Sinjar aren’t able to go back home because of the presence of the PKK, a vile terrorist organization whose offshoot the TAK (they’re actually one and the same just like Al Nusra and Al Qaeda are, but for a reason I can’t quite fathom some international journalists pretend they aren’t) recently carried out a deadly terror attack in Istanbul killing 38 and wounding 155.

The KRG understand that the PKK presence in Syria and Iraq will force Turkey’s hand. Ankara can’t let the PKK build up bases in the region. Doing so will undoubtedly result in more deadly terror attacks in Turkey itself. I don’t care what you think about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but he’s absolutely right when he says he’s not going to let that happen. No rational government would.

In the coming weeks and months we’ll see whether the PKK listens to the KRG, or whether the disagreements between the two Kurdish groups will result in massive clashes. And no, I wouldn’t rule that out. After all, if there’s anything Marxist-Leninists believe in it’s violence.