Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair and Van independent deputy Aysel Tuğluk spoke about the details of the meeting she held with the governor of Van, Nezih Doğan, concerning the problems of earthquake victims who have been on hunger strike in the Anatolia container city for 52 days today. Victims are demanding their housing right in response to the governor's instruction for the evacuation of the container city.

Tuğluk said that during the meeting she told the governor about the tragedy and inhuman living conditions earthquake victims are being subject to in container cities, and asked for the urgent satisfaction of their housing demand.

"There is a kind of punishment in the container cities where people, children and women in particular, are suffering from challenging conditions. Their demand should and could be satisfied by authorities. This is what we spoke during the meeting", Tuğluk said.

Remarking that the governor tried to justify all the happenings, and alleged that some of the victims on hunger strike incited the protest and forced others to join it, Tuğluk denied the governor's allegations and said that; "This is a matter of a concrete problem related with people's needs for house, food and work. It makes no sense to claim that this protest was incited by some marginal groups. The governor unfortunately displayed no approach siding with a solution to the problems of earthquake victims."

Tuğluk noted that she had suggested the governor doing something for the problem together, adding that the governor however insisted that they would not accept to take any steps answering the demands and the protest should be ended.

"We could not make some sense of the governor's ignoring the situation of earthquake victims and alleging their reaction to be a marginal protest", she underlined.

Stressing that earthquake victims have been left to their fate, Tuğluk said the governor told that they could provide the victims with houses for rent, and he however entered into no further detail about this possibility.

Tuğluk said authorities evaded the issue, and pointed out that members of the BDP have however agreed on not leaving the victims alone. "They are our people. We cannot accept to leave them in this situation. Their demands must be answered and their problems must be resolved", Tuğluk said and added that they would also bring the issue to the parliament's agenda and ask for an appointment from the concerned ministryin order for a solution to the problems of earthquake victims.

We will be standing by our people and come up with a solution in one way or another, she added.