Holy smokes, Batman! Petition to redraw Turkey's province after superhero's sign

A bizarre internet campaign is trying to persuade the Turkish province of Batman to change its borders so it looks like the Caped Crusader's logo.

The online petition was started two weeks ago to plead with authorities in the area in the south east of the country to reconsider the border change.

And in the space of a fortnight, 23,000 people have signed the petition, which will be addressed to the governor of Batman.

The online campaign was started by Kemal Atakan Kırca, who claimed that "Batman needs some change".

He wrote: "We can start with the border. By changing the border, we can make it more realistic."

And people signing the petition wrote their own messages of support on the campaign website.

Taha Akdeniz wrote: "Let's make Batman great again."

While Gregory Allen said: "I love batman and believe nothing like this will happen again. I want to be a part of history."

Michele Meola added: "I'm signing because this is awesome."

And Kutlubay Sinoplu simply wrote: "nanananananananananananan."

The province of Batman has a population of around 600,000 people and is an important area for oil production.

It is pronounced "Baht-man" - named after an old Turkish measure of weight.

In 2008, the mayor of the city of Batman said he wanted to sue Warner Bros for using the name of the province in the film Batman Begins and The Dark Knight without paying royalties.

But a lawsuit never materialised as it appears that the character of Batman was created in the 1930s, 20 years before the creation of the province.