[4] 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.

[5] 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,[7] returning on three more occasions for talks between then and October 2014.

[13] On 9 October 2013, Salih Muslim's son Shervan, a fighter in the People's Protection Units (YPG), was killed west of Tell Abyad during clashes with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

"[20] 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 (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.

[11] During an interview with BBC News reporter Orla Guerin in August 2012, Muslim denied any "operational links" to the PKK.

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.

[26] In late 2016, Turkey issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim[13] in a move considered putting Ankara on a collision course with its Western allies.