Salih Muslim Muhammad

Who is Salih Muslim Muhammad?

Salih Muslim Muhammad is the leader of the Democratic Union Party, an alleged Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, and the most powerful member of the Kurdish opposition in the Syrian civil war. He is also the deputy co-ordinator of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change.

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. Following University he worked as an engineer in Saudi Arabia before returning to Syria in the 90s.

He joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria, the Syrian branch of the Kurdish Democratic Party, in 1998. He later left in 2003 after becoming disillusioned by the party's failure to accomplish its objectives and joined the newly formed Democratic Union Party, or PYD, becoming a member of its executive council, and was elected as party head in 2010. He fled to a PUK camp in Iraq in 2010 after he and his wife were imprisoned in Syria, however returned to Qamishli in March 2011 following the beginning of the Syrian civil war.