Let us accept that Turkey’s statements that it is fighting the terrorist organization not the Kurds, or the reality on the ground, are  not convincing to all Kurds.

A significant number of Kurds in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria and other parts of the world are not satisfied by the statements and the reality on the ground and think that the operation is being conducted against Kurds – which they express through various mediums.

The segment in question does not consist of PKK members or PKK sympathizers alone. A certain segment that does not approve of the PKK or its policies and methods, that does not vote for the pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) also feels the same way. While some PKK accounts on social media use a crass and vile language like, “Throwing a Molotov at God on doomsday,” a perfect reflection of the PKK’s atheist language, it is possible to see on the other side, an elderly Kurdish man, who has spent his life in prayer and the remembrance of God, pray for the PKK.

Reacting to this sad result with a slogan, labeling the man praying for the PKK might be an option, but it will not lead us to a happy ending. History has shown us on many occasions that burying our heads in the sand will bring us harm rather than benefit.

The PKK was established in 1978, in the village of Fisköyü in Diyarbakır province’s Lice district. It has been 40 years since then and unfortunately in those 40 years, we concentrated solely on the PKK’s acts of violence.

Yet, the PKK emerged as a project aiming to poison all Kurds. Violence was only one aspect of the PKK. The actual aim was to make the PKK the sole organization of Kurds. Though let’s admit, this 40-year project was largely successful; the PKK is perceived as “a representative organization of Kurds” not only in the eyes of some Kurds in Turkey but also some of the Kurds in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It is at least known as “a Kurdish organization.”

How did we get here?

First, the West supported the PKK project – instead of individually investing in different Kurdish groups – and created a tool for itself. Imperialism and capitalism wanted to keep all Kurds under its control and steer them in its desired direction through a clever project, through a seemingly socialist organization.

Second, the PKK crushed all other Kurdish groups within the scope of the mission it was tasked to carry out. It wiped out not only the Kurdish organizations opposing it, but also every other formation that had the potential to become strong. Without batting an eye, it eliminated every idea that wouldn’t kneel to it, every intellectual and every artist who wouldn’t submit to it.

Third, while countries where the PKK is active, like Iran, Iraq, Syria and primarily Turkey, are interested in the violence aspect of the problem, they ignored or could not see the political, social and cultural aspects of the project. Yes, the PKK is recognized in the U.S. and EU as a terrorist organization, but the social, political and cultural activities carried out by the PKK under various masks were supported by the same countries. They used terms such as “human rights” or “freedom of press/expression” as means of imposition, solely to keep the PKK project alive.

The 40-year-old PKK and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), which is almost the same age, are so much alike.

The PKK was the project of controlling Kurds under the “Kurdish” mask; FETÖ is the project of controlling Muslims under the “Muslim” mask. Both were produced by the West, cultivated and brought to this stage by the West.

Praise be to God that Turkey collapsed the FETÖ project. Nobody other than its brainwashed deviants believe in FETÖ any longer; nobody believes anymore that FETÖ and its leader, Fetullah Gülen, are Muslim.

The PKK project needs to collapse now just like the FETÖ project.

It is the Kurdish intelligentsia, the Kurdish artist that will drop the PKK’s mask; those who will have the biggest role in dropping the PKK’s mask are the religious Kurds, Kurdish scholars and brave Kurdish politicians.

All the Kurds in our region need brave hearts, heroic intelligentsia, artists, opinion leaders and politicians who will explain what kind of project the PKK is; how the PKK solely massacred Kurds for the last four decades, how it destroyed the PKK’s Kurdish identity and how the PKK presented Kurdish blood to the West.

Kurds need true heroes who will turn the PKK, to Qandil and cry out, “edi bese” (enough), rather than the two-faced, insincere cowards who have sold their soul to the West turning to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and shouting out, “No to war.”

For Kurds from among whom a hero like Salahuddin al-Ayyubi emerged, is having sympathy for a project like the PKK, an undertaker organization anything other than derogation?

Like FETÖ, the West’s PKK project is regressing in all fronts. Turkey’s determined, brave and “Muslim” stance is foiling another dirty project in the Middle East. But it is the Kurds who will be striking the killer blow on the PKK project.

The PKK has been poisoning Kurdish politics, sociology and culture for exactly four decades. Unless Kurds distance themselves from the PKK, unless they act with their own dynamics instead of leaning on the U.S., EU or Israel, they will never have peace.

If a Kurd can brave up and say, “The PKK project feeding on Kurdish blood in Afrin is collapsing,” rather than saying, “The Afrin operation is being conducted against Kurds,” that is when the doors of a new era will open for Kurds.