A group of lonely single men have staged a protest march through a village in Turkey where women have refused all marriage proposals.

The women say they do not want to be trapped in the remote village of Uzumlu in southern Turkey.

The men say the women are being unreasonable and a video on CNNTurk.com website shows them marching through the village with banners urging the ladies to accept village life.

The single men were joined on their protest march by some of their mothers, sisters and grandmothers who are upset by the exodus of young women from the village

The mayor Mustafa Bashbilan told the Al Arabiya website there were 25 single men, aged between 25 and 45, in the village.

But the last wedding in the village was nine years ago and since then its population has fallen alarmingly, from 400 to 233.

He said most of the town’s young women had chosen to move to cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Antalya but the men stayed behind to farm land which has been in their families' possession for centuries.

Mr Bashbilan said the town was not poor but the unhappiness of the men was becoming a social problem.

One of the men's banners called on Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to help.

Last month, in a speech marking International Women's Day, Erdogan said he believed 'a woman is above all else a mother'.

The men held up placards during the protest, one of which promised to impregnate their future wives with five children each

Erdogan has been criticised in the past for urging Turkish women to have at least three children and calling birth control 'treason'.

One of the singleton's banners in Uzumlu promised they would impregnate their future wives with five children each.

But while that might please Erdogan, it is unlikely to change the minds of the footloose women of Uzumlu.

The population of Uzumlu has almost halved in the last nine years with young women in particular moving away to the big cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Antalya