Saleh Muslim, co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) — which controls a string of mainly Kurdish-populated towns and villages in northern Syria and administers them through "popular councils" — has a few tempered messages for Turkey in an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor on Oct. 7. A few days later, on Oct. 9, as this article was about to be published, news emerged that Muslim's son Shervan, a fighter with the Popular Defense Units (YPG), had been shot and killed in the town of Tel Abyad by a sniper from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Muslim could not be reached for comment.

Muslim, who of late has accused Turkey of waging a proxy war against the PYD by supporting jihadist groups in Syria, said he appreciated the tough criticism delivered by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in late September to groups launching terror attacks in the name of Islam. Muslim also said there is no question whatsoever of his organization joining Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in taking hostile action against Turkey.

This was my sixth or seventh interview with Muslim over the past nine months. A graduate of chemical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Muslim speaks perfect Turkish, and our interviews have always been conducted in Turkish. We could have spoken in English as well, because unlike many Kurdish leaders, Muslim also speaks that language quite well. Our interviews have been via Skype, because Muslim is constantly on the move. Our last interview, on Sept. 17, took place while he was in Iraq. This time, I caught up with him in Belgium.

Despite his exhausting schedule, the affable Muslim always breaks into a smile. He has a good sense of humor. In our previous interview, he was furious at Ankara. After being officially invited to Turkey in July and August, Muslim met in Istanbul with officials of the Foreign Ministry, National Intelligence Organization and others in the security sector. He briefed them on systematic and brutal attacks by Salafist groups, led by Jabhat al-Nusra and the al-Qaeda-linked ISIS, against Kurds. His briefing included documents attesting that these groups were moving back and forth across the Turkish border and included Turkish nationals among them. The Turkish official, while denying any knowledge of jihadists using Turkey as a rear base, admitted that jihadists could be infiltrating Syria without the state's knowledge. Muslim, seeking to establish friendly relations with Turkey, accepted these explanations in good faith.