Salih Muslim

Salih Muslim Muhammad
Salih Muslim in December 2012
Chairman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD)
In office 2010 – Not yet ended Serving with Asya Abdullah (since 2012)
Personal details
Born	1951 Kobanî, Aleppo Governorate, Syria
Political party	Democratic Union Party (PYD) (2003–present)
Other political affiliations	Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (1998–2003)
Spouse(s)	Ayşe Efendi
Children	Five (one deceased)
Alma mater	Istanbul Technical University (1977)
Occupation	Chemical engineer
Profession	Politician
Religion	Islam

Salih Muslim Muhammad (born 1951) is the current co-chairman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the driving power behind the de facto autonomous Kurdish-controlled region of Rojava in Northern Syria. As the deputy coordinator of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, he is also the most prominent member of the Kurdish opposition in the Syrian Civil War.

Muslim first became involved with the Kurdish movement during the 1970s when he was studying engineering at Istanbul Technical University after becoming influenced by Mustafa Barzani'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), which he left in 2003 after becoming disillusioned by the party's failure to accomplish its objectives.

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 and returned to Qamishli in March 2011 following the beginning of the Syrian Civil War.

Unter Muslim's chairmanship the PYD in the following years became the leading political party and actor in the emergence of the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava.

Muslim is a citizen of Syria was born in Seyran village close to Kobani in 1951. After an education in Syria, he studied at the Chemical Engineering faculty of Istanbul Technical University from 1970 until graduating in 1977. After a brief stint in London, he worked in Saudi Arabia between 1978 and 1990, and opened an engineering office in 1993 in Aleppo.