Equating an ethnicity with a political movement is an old trick.

The Ottoman Imperialists equated Armenians with the Entente, the early Italian Fascists equated Yugoslavs with socialists, the German Fascists equated Jews with Bolsheviks, the Japanese Imperialists equated the Hainanese with communists, the Guatemalan Army equated the Maya with communists, the Croatian ultranationalists equated Serbs with communists, and so on and so forth.