User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 428: When We Take Different Paths, Review and Commentary/@comment-24613218-20150419054100/@comment-26263257-20150419074509

I think so too... though I think Makarov created Avatar as a dummy guild to draw out Zeref, and then zap him with Lumen Histoire... It's possible that some Avatar mems are FT and GH mems in disguise.