Salih Muslim Muhammad (Kurmanji ku, Salih Muslim Mihemed, ar, صالح مسلم محمد, Ṣāliḥ Muslim Muḥammad) is the co-chairman of the
Democratic Union Party (PYD), the main party of the
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. As the deputy coordinator of the
, he is the most prominent
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
representative for much of the
Syrian Civil War.
Political career
Early political activities
Muslim first became involved with the Kurdish movement during the 1970s when he was studying engineering at
Istanbul Technical University
Istanbul Technical University ( tr, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, commonly referred to as ITU or The Technical University) is an international technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third-oldest technical universit ...
after becoming influenced by
Mustafa Barzani
Mustafa Barzani ( ku, مەلا مستهفا بارزانی, Mistefa Barzanî; 14 March 1903 – 1 March 1979) also known as Mela Mustafa (Preacher Mustafa), was a Kurdish leader, general and one of the most prominent political figures in mod ...
's
ongoing fight against the Iraqi government, the failure of which spurred him into becoming more active.
In 1998, he joined the
Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDP-S), the Syrian branch of the Iraqi
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP).
He left the KDP-S in 2003 after becoming disillusioned by the party's failure to accomplish its objectives.
Democratic Union Party (PYD)
In 2003, Muslim joined the newly formed
Democratic Union Party (PYD), becoming a member of its executive council, and was elected as party head in 2010.
After he and his wife Ayşe Efendi were imprisoned in Syria, he fled to a
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) camp in Iraq in 2010. He returned to
Qamishli
Qamishli ( ar, ٱلْقَامِشْلِي, Al-Qāmišlī, ku, قامشلۆ, Qamişlo, syc, ܒܝܬ ܙܠܝ̈ܢ, Bēṯ Zālīn, lit=House of Reeds or syr, ܩܡܫܠܐ, translit=Qamishlo) in March 2011, following the beginning of the
Syrian Civil War.
Under Muslim's chairmanship, the PYD became the leading political party and actor in the emergence of the
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. In July 2013, during the
Kurdish-Turkish peace process, he was invited to Istanbul to negotiate with the Turkish government about the future of Syria, returning on three more occasions for talks between then and October 2014.
TEV-DEM foreign relations
In September 2017, the 7th congress of the PYD was held in Northern Syria, where two new co-chairs were elected. Muslim since works as the foreign relations official of the
Movement for a Democratic Society
The Movement for a Democratic Society ( ku, Tevgera Civaka Demokratîk, TEV-DEM, ar, حركة المجتمع الديمقراطي, syc, ܙܘܥܐ ܕܟܢܫܐ ܕܝܡܩܪܐܛܝܐ, Zaw'o d'Kensho Demoqraṭoyo) is a left-wing umbrella organization ...
(TEV-DEM) coalition of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.
In this capacity, Muslim has stressed the message that "the Kurdish problem in Turkey and the Kurdish problem in Syria are two separate issues and will be resolved separately. To solve our problem in Syria, we have to sit down and talk with our fellow Syrians, with Arabs, Turkmens and others. Not with Turkey."
Salih was re-elected co-chairman of the PYD alongside
Asya Abdullah on June 20, 2022 during the party's 9th congress.
Personal life
Muslim, a citizen of
Syria, was born in a Syrian village close to
Kobani in 1951. After an education in Syria, he studied at the Chemical Engineering faculty of
Istanbul Technical University
Istanbul Technical University ( tr, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, commonly referred to as ITU or The Technical University) is an international technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third-oldest technical universit ...
from 1970 until graduating in 1977. After a brief stint in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, he worked in
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
between 1978 and 1990, and opened an engineering office in 1993 in
Aleppo.
On 9 October 2013, Salih Muslim's son Shervan, a fighter in the
People's Protection Units
The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly- Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democra ...
(YPG), was killed west of
Tell Abyad
Tell Abyad; ku, گرێ سپی, Girê Spî; hy, Թել Աբյադ; syr, ܬܠ ܐܒܝܕ. is a town in northern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. Located along the Balikh River, it cons ...
during clashes with the then-
al-Qaeda-linked
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
. He was buried in the family's hometown of
Kobanê in a public funeral which thousands of people attended.
According to Muslim himself, he has permission to reside in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
.
Muslim can speak
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Turkish.
Relations with foreign countries
Europe
Muslim is a familiar face in European capitals where he is hosted by senior officials.
He is a frequent guest and speaker at European political institutions and events,
[ inter alia in September 2016 invited to address the ]European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
.
Addressing thousands during the Newroz
Newroz or Nawroz ( ku, نەورۆز, Newroz) is the Kurdish celebration of Nowruz; the arrival of spring and new year in Kurdish culture. The lighting of the fires at the beginning of the evening of March 21 is the main symbol of Newroz among t ...
celebration in Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
, Germany, on 18 March 2017, Muslim said that "there is a huge resistance despite all the attacks. Nobody should doubt that the success and victory will be ours." Muslim criticised Germany for banning Kurdish symbols, saying that "Germany should have banned the flags of Turkey and terrorist groups instead of our flags and symbols because we are fighting in the Middle East not for ourselves alone, we are fighting ISIS and terrorism for all humanity. Our resistance is for Europe, for the West and for all humanity."
Turkey
Between 2012 and 2015, Muslim was Ankara’s top interlocutor within the PYD's Syrian Kurdish movement, which was inspired by former Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...
(PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan. During an interview with BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
reporter Orla Guerin in August 2012, Muslim denied any "operational links" to the PKK. Turkey has received Salih Muslim for talks in 2013 and in 2014, even entertaining the idea of opening a Rojava representation office in Ankara
Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
"if it's suitable with Ankara's policies." However, following June 2015 AKP electoral loss in Turkey, largely due to the raise of Kurdish HDP party, the Solution process (2013-2015) collapsed in July 2015, drastically changing the course of AKP relations to the Kurdish issue. According to the pro-administration Daily Sabah, “As a reconciliation process with the PKK was ongoing between 2012 and 2015, Ankara tried to persuade the PYD to drop its hostile attitude toward Turkey, open cooperation channels and to end its affiliations with the Bashar Assad regime. As the PKK unilaterally resumed armed attacks in July 2015, the PYD and its armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), provided the PKK with militants, explosives, arms and ammunition. Simultaneous armed revolts broke out in almost all towns and cities bordering Syria; whereas terrorists trained in northern Syria staged suicide attacks in Turkish cities.” The Turkish government allegedly sought to assassinate Muslim. In late 2016, Turkey issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim[ in a move considered putting Ankara on a collision course with its Western allies. On 14 February 2018, two days after Muslim was placed on the "most wanted terrorists" list by the Turkish Interior Ministry and had a bounty of 4 million ]Turkish lira
The lira ( tr, Türk lirası; sign: ₺; ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. One lira is divided into one hundred ''kuruş''.
History
Ottoman lira (1844–1923)
The lira, along with ...
(about $1.5US millions at the time) placed on his head, he held a press conference at the seat of European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
institutions in Brussels. He was briefly detained at Turkey’s request on 25 February 2018 in Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
, the capital of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
, but was released 2 days later, drawing angry protests from Turkey. On 17 March 2018, the Czech authorities dismissed Turkey's request.
In a February 2018 interview, Muslim said that "when I look back, I conclude that Turkey was never sincere about wanting to make peace with the Kurds. Had Turkey reached out to the Kurds, worked with the Kurds, it would have become the most powerful country in the Middle East."
References
External links
Video , Salih Muslim Muhammad , Full Q&A , Oxford Union , January 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muslim, Salih
People of the Syrian civil war
Living people
1951 births
Syrian Kurdish politicians
Articles containing video clips
Democratic Union Party (Syria) politicians
Syrian Kurdish people
Istanbul Technical University alumni
Rojava politicians