Salih Muslim, a prominent Syrian Kurdish political figure and longtime leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), has died at the age of 75 after a long illness, his family said.
Muslim had been receiving treatment for kidney failure at a hospital in Erbil, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, his son Amed Muslim told Rudaw TV. He is expected to be buried in his hometown of Kobani in northern Syria.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) issued a message of condolence describing Muslim as someone who “dedicated his life to the struggle for freedom.”
“We extend our condolences to Salih Muslim’s family and people,” the party said in a message on X.
PYD Eşbaşkanlık Konseyi Üyesi Salih Müslim'in hayatını kaybettiğini büyük bir üzüntüyle öğrendik.
Ömrünü halkının özgürlük mücadelesine adayan ve bu yolda en önde yürümekten bir an bile tereddüt etmeyen Salih Müslim'e rahmet, ailesine ve halkımıza başsağlığı diliyoruz.
Salih… pic.twitter.com/by4VWo8l9n
— DEM Parti (@DEMGenelMerkezi) March 11, 2026
Born in Kobani in 1951, Muslim studied engineering at İstanbul Technical University in the 1970s before becoming involved in Kurdish political activism.
He joined the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-S) in 1998 but left the group in 2003 and later became one of the founders of the PYD.
Muslim was elected co-chair of the PYD in 2010 along with Asya Abdullah. After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the party emerged as a major political force in the Kurdish-led autonomous administration that developed in parts of northern and eastern Syria.
Although he stepped down from the party’s top leadership in 2017, Muslim remained a member of the PYD’s presidential council and continued to be one of the best-known figures in Syrian Kurdish politics.
Relations with Turkey
Muslim was also widely known in Turkey, where Ankara’s relationship with the PYD shifted significantly during the Syrian conflict.
In the early years of the Syrian civil war, Turkish officials held meetings with Muslim and other PYD representatives to discuss Syria’s future. However, relations deteriorated after peace talks between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) collapsed in 2015.
Since then Turkey has described the PYD and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), as the Syrian extension of the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
In 2018 Turkey added Muslim to its “most wanted terrorists” list and sought his extradition from several European countries. He was briefly detained in Prague in February 2018 at Ankara’s request but was released two days later, with Czech authorities later rejecting Turkey’s request for his extradition.
Interview controversy in Turkey
Muslim’s name resurfaced in Turkey in 2025 in a case involving journalist Nevşin Mengü.
An İstanbul court handed Mengü a suspended 15-month sentence after prosecutors accused her of spreading “terrorist propaganda” for airing a YouTube interview with Muslim in December 2024.
Mengü removed the interview shortly after publishing it following legal advice warning that it could be interpreted as violating Turkish laws on praising criminal acts or offenders.
Her lawyers argued that the interview fell within the scope of press freedom and the public’s right to access information, while press freedom groups criticized the prosecution of journalists under Turkey’s counterterrorism laws.
Voice in debates on Syria’s future
Even after stepping down from PYD leadership, Muslim remained an influential voice in discussions about Syria’s future and Kurdish political rights.
In a 2025 interview he said Turkey should “keep its hands off” Syria if renewed peace efforts involving Kurds were to succeed, arguing that developments in Syria and Turkey should be handled separately.
Muslim also advocated for a decentralized political system in Syria that would protect the rights of ethnic and religious communities and warned that Islamic State sleeper cells remained a threat.
He had continued to serve as a member of the PYD’s presidential council in recent years.