Saleh Muslim

Journeys

Biography

Saleh Muslim is a Syrian Kurdish politician who co-chaired the Democratic Union Party (PYD) — the dominant Syrian Kurdish political party closely affiliated with Abdullah Öcalan's PKK movement. When the Assad government withdrew from Kurdish-majority areas in 2012, the PYD under Muslim's co-leadership established Rojava (the Kurdish Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria). He navigated the impossible tensions of fighting ISIS, managing uneasy relations with the Assad government, Turkey (which classified the PYD as a terrorist organization), and Western powers seeking to use Kurdish forces against ISIS.