ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Well-known Kurdish leader Salih Muslim, co-chair of Rojava's (northeast Syria)  Democratic Union Party (PYD), died Wednesday at Meryamana Hospital in Erbil’s Ankawa after succumbing to an illness, a source told The New Region.

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani described the late Muslim as someone who "spent his life in political work to achieve the legitimate rights of the Kurdish people," saying "he played a prominent role in various stages of the struggle."

"With great sorrow and grief, I received the news of the passing of Salih Muslim,” Mazloum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), wrote on X.

“He was the Father of the Nation, the father of a martyr, a close friend, a great leader, a distinguished Kurdish politician and patriot,” Abdi said, noting that he played a major role in the struggle for the freedom of the Kurdish people in the past four decades. 

Fathullah Hosseini, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria's (AANES) representative in the Kurdistan Region, said, “After the necessary procedures, he will be returned to his birthplace, the village of Sheran in Kobane, and will be buried there,” he told The New Region on Wednesday.

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM Party) also expressed its condolences.

“We offer our condolences to Salih Muslim, who dedicated his life to the freedom struggle of his people and never hesitated for a moment to walk at the forefront of this path,” the DEM Party said.

Born in 1951, Muslim was among the founders of the PYD and returned to Syria after civil war broke out in 2011, helping transform the party into the dominant political force in Kurdish-held areas. 

Under his leadership, Kurdish authorities established self-rule in Rojava after government forces withdrew in 2012, and he became one of the most visible Kurdish political figures internationally while advocating “democratic confederalism.”

Muslim's son Shervan died in 2013 while fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS) with the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG) in Raqqa.