A petition campaign calling supporters to change the borders of the southeastern Turkish province Batman to resemble the logo of the fictional superhero carrying the same name has gained more than 25,000 signatures as of Tuesday.

Batman, located alongside the Tigris river, made headlines in 2008 when it unsuccessfully demanded copyrights for Hollywood’s Batman movies.

One internet user last year launched the online petition on Change.org to alter the borders of Batman province to make it what he said "more realistic."

"Batman needs some change! We can start with the border. By changing the border, we can make it more realistic," wrote Kemal Atakan Kırca, the user who started the petition.

As of Tuesday, the petition has nearly 26,000 signatures — just over 9,000 away from its goal of 35,000.

In 2008, province's former mayor Hüseyin Kalkan announced he was suing Christopher Nolan, the director of some of the superhero Batman movies, for stealing his city's name.

"There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us," Kalkan said.

The mayor also placed the blame for a number of unsolved murders and a high rate of suicide among young women on the psychological impact of the film on the city's inhabitants.

However, comic book writer Bob Kane created the character Batman in 1939 — two decades before the Turkish city got its modern name.