BDP deputies and mayors stood by victims to give support, as Diyarbakir and other Kurdish cities mobilized to afford assistance for the earthquake region, particularly Erciş district and villages that weren’t reached by the government. Search and rescue teams, technical teams, rescue vehicles, buses were sent from Diyarbakir and Kurdish cities to the region where BDP also offered a Health Tent and Kitchen Tent services to meet the health and food requirement of citizens.

BDP criticized rescue works for being both inadequate and uncoordinated and not leaded by professional persons who were noncompetent in saving lives. "There wasn’t any serious preparation and there were problems with the coordination regarding the needs of the saved people. Despite long discussions since the 17 August earthquake in 1999, it came out that the government hasn’t taken any measures and precautions in this regard as well as being caught unprepared. It seems that the people will relieve their wound themselves” , BDP co-chair Gültan Kışanak said during a visit to the city.

Kışanak underlined that; “The Prime Minister acknowledged that what needed to be done wasn’t done within the first 24 hours which are the life-saving hours in the event of an earthquake. Many people may lose their lives within these first 24 hours, as did the government lead to here. About 500 people died under the debris so far however half of this number could have been saved if the government had usefully treated these 24 hours. Erdoğan came to Van but neither rescue teams nor tents reached the city. Rescue works had still not started when we arrived there seven hours after the earthquake. People were waiting to die in the wreckage. The Prime Minister and his ministers visited Van with their private plane, made a great show and then left the region.”

On 9 November, the city was hit by another 5.6 magnitude earthquake -epicenter Edremit district- which came following a number of aftershocks felt in the region since the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 23 October.

The local people, those who didn't leave the city after the first quake, faced yet another disaster which made their conditions worse and more challenging as the government continued to fail to answer the needs and demands of the victims who were left homeless in the cold in quite severe weather conditions.

Two years on and the life somehow didn't get back into circulation, with the victims of the two major earthquakes still facing challenging conditions as they have yet to be answered for their housing need, trying to hold on to life in the container houses they are being forced to leave now.

A group of victims in Anatolia container city went on a hunger strike after they were ordered to leave the container city despite the fact that they had nowhere else to go after losing their houses and everything else in the earthquakes. Four among them turned the strike to death fast on 12 September after the governor's office ordered power cut-off in the container city. The four later ended the death fast.

Following the power cut, the mosque in the container city was closed -one week before the Ramadan month- and the security staff was also recalled from duty. The Turkish flag outside the container city was also removed, because of which residents of the container city condemn the authorities for eliminating and and discriminating them from Turkish citizens.

The container city is currently hosting 100 families whose demands for a permanent solution to their housing problem still remains unanswered. They have no financial means and this is why they have to continue living in the container city. They have nowhere to go and no means to provide better circumstances.

They are not hopeful about receiving an answer from the governor who -they say- has so far refused all the demands highlighted by victims, and sentenced them to find a solution with their own means. A woman who visited the governor to demand a solution for her and her baby was advised by the governor to find herself a man and marry him to take care of the family. "He takes none of us and our problems seriously, we expect nothing from him", the woman says, and smiles, and adds that she cannot feel anything any more.
Another woman, mother of five, also complains about the lack of circumstances necessary for the health of their children who are facing probably the most challenging aspect of living container city tragedy. "Our children do not want to live here, for it is cold, they have nothing to eat, no warm soup to drink and no food to eat", tells a mother.

"Several days ago, a child asked his father when he would provide them with a human living. The father had no answer to give. He just went outside and stayed there for a long time, waiting in the rain and crying, feeling the desperateness of not being able to help his child", says another woman and asks; "Why are we being subject to all these? For being Kurds?"

The children are also facing challenges while at school. Parents tell that a school, the nearest one to the container city, first refused to provide education for the children coming from the container city. "It was three months after the beginning of the education year that our children first started to go to school. They are being treated there like second-class citizens and being subject to insults and mistreatment. They don't have books to read and notebooks or pens to write. How can we possibly expect them to be succesful?", says a father.

Women on the other hand are suffering from, among other things, psychological problems in the face of the increasing difficulties for their families and especially their children. "My children cannot sleep at night due to the cold weather which we cannot challenge while having no electiricity. We have wood burning stoves but we have no woods to burn. We have no warm water either to wash our children and ourselves. We could find a way to warm the water in the summer but ahead of us is the winter which witnesses quite severe weather conditions in the city", speaks a mother who says nobody should expect them to lead a healthy life under the current circumstances.

Families also complain about the government for offering them no solution, reminding of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent visit to the city last weekend when he paid no visit to the victims -despite using the road outside the container city- and a group representing the victims was denied access to the hotel where Erdoğan stayed.

"We want to know what happened to the aids sent to Van. Is the government of the Turkish Republic not able to solve the problem of  a hundred families?", they also ask.