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Saleh Muslim and the Kurdish Gamble: Rojava Between Assad and ISIS
When Assad withdrew from Kurdish Syria in 2012, the PYD moved in. What followed was one of the most complex political experiments of the civil war — a secular Kurdish autonomous region fighting ISIS while every regional power tried to destroy it.
Confirmed2 chapters2012-07-01— 2019-10-01
How Syria's Kurds built their own state in the chaos of revolution — navigating Assad, ISIS, Turkey, and the West simultaneously.
01
Chapter 01custom01 / 02
The Assad Withdrawal and the Birth of Rojava: 2012
In July 2012, the Assad government made a calculated decision: it withdrew Syrian Arab Army forces from most Kurdish-majority areas in northern Syria — Afrin, Kobani (Ayn al-Arab), and the Jazira region. The government was overstretched fighting a nationwide insurgency and calculated that the Kurds, if allowed to self-govern, might at least stay neutral rather than joining the armed opposition.
The PYD (Democratic Union Party), co-chaired by Saleh Muslim and Asya Abdullah, moved immediately to fill the vacuum. Within days of the government withdrawal, the PYD and its armed wing — the YPG (People's Protection Units) — had established control over these areas and began establishing the structures of what would become Rojava: the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
The PYD's ideology was derived from Abdullah Öcalan's democratic confederalism — a philosophy developed during Öcalan's imprisonment that combined Kurdish nationalism with feminism, ecology, and direct democracy. Saleh Muslim was a key interpreter and implementer of this ideology in the Syrian context.
Rojava's governance was novel: all leadership positions were required to be co-chaired by a man and a woman. Ethnic minorities (Arabs, Syriac Christians, Yazidis) were given significant representation in governing structures. Decisions were meant to be made by local councils rather than top-down command.
For Saleh Muslim, the Assad withdrawal was an unexpected opportunity to implement a political project that had been theorized but never tested in practice. The civil war had, paradoxically, created the conditions for a Kurdish political experiment.
The PYD (Democratic Union Party), co-chaired by Saleh Muslim and Asya Abdullah, moved immediately to fill the vacuum. Within days of the government withdrawal, the PYD and its armed wing — the YPG (People's Protection Units) — had established control over these areas and began establishing the structures of what would become Rojava: the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
The PYD's ideology was derived from Abdullah Öcalan's democratic confederalism — a philosophy developed during Öcalan's imprisonment that combined Kurdish nationalism with feminism, ecology, and direct democracy. Saleh Muslim was a key interpreter and implementer of this ideology in the Syrian context.
Rojava's governance was novel: all leadership positions were required to be co-chaired by a man and a woman. Ethnic minorities (Arabs, Syriac Christians, Yazidis) were given significant representation in governing structures. Decisions were meant to be made by local councils rather than top-down command.
For Saleh Muslim, the Assad withdrawal was an unexpected opportunity to implement a political project that had been theorized but never tested in practice. The civil war had, paradoxically, created the conditions for a Kurdish political experiment.
Confirmed(85%)Sensitivity: medium
02
Chapter 02custom02 / 02
The Battle of Kobani and the ISIS War: 2014–2015
In September 2014, ISIS launched a massive offensive against Kobani — the Kurdish city on the Turkish border that had become a symbolic heart of Rojava. ISIS used heavy weapons captured from Iraqi Army depots after the fall of Mosul. The city was nearly surrounded.
Saleh Muslim and PYD leadership appealed internationally for help. What followed was one of the most-watched battles of the entire Syrian war. The siege of Kobani played out live on international television while Turkish tanks sat on a ridge overlooking the city — Turkey having refused to allow Kurdish fighters to cross its territory to reinforce the defenders.
The battle became a turning point in Western policy. The United States, which had been looking for a ground partner to fight ISIS in Syria, began airdropping supplies and eventually conducting coordinated airstrikes in support of Kurdish YPG forces. This was the beginning of the US-SDF partnership that would eventually defeat ISIS's territorial caliphate.
Kobani did not fall. After months of brutal urban combat, the ISIS offensive was broken in January 2015. The battle cost thousands of lives but demonstrated that the Kurdish forces could defeat ISIS — and established the military and political partnership with the West that would define the next phase of the conflict.
For Saleh Muslim, Kobani was transformative. It put Rojava on the international map, brought military partnership with the world's most powerful military, and established the Kurds as the most effective anti-ISIS force in Syria. But it also deepened Turkey's alarm and brought the question of what Rojava would become into global politics.
Saleh Muslim and PYD leadership appealed internationally for help. What followed was one of the most-watched battles of the entire Syrian war. The siege of Kobani played out live on international television while Turkish tanks sat on a ridge overlooking the city — Turkey having refused to allow Kurdish fighters to cross its territory to reinforce the defenders.
The battle became a turning point in Western policy. The United States, which had been looking for a ground partner to fight ISIS in Syria, began airdropping supplies and eventually conducting coordinated airstrikes in support of Kurdish YPG forces. This was the beginning of the US-SDF partnership that would eventually defeat ISIS's territorial caliphate.
Kobani did not fall. After months of brutal urban combat, the ISIS offensive was broken in January 2015. The battle cost thousands of lives but demonstrated that the Kurdish forces could defeat ISIS — and established the military and political partnership with the West that would define the next phase of the conflict.
For Saleh Muslim, Kobani was transformative. It put Rojava on the international map, brought military partnership with the world's most powerful military, and established the Kurds as the most effective anti-ISIS force in Syria. But it also deepened Turkey's alarm and brought the question of what Rojava would become into global politics.
Confirmed(85%)Sensitivity: medium
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