( CNN ) The Force is strong in Turkey -- or at least it appears to be at one university where thousands of students are petitioning for a Jedi temple to be built on campus . The petition , which was started by a student at Dokuz Eylul University in the western province of Izmir , so far has almost 5,500 signatures . `` There are less and less Jedi left on the Earth , '' the petition says . It adds that `` uneducated Padawan '' -- the novice Jedis in George Lucas ' `` Star Wars '' film franchise -- `` are moving to the dark side . ... To find the balance in the Force , we want a Jedi temple . '' The page on Change.org also features a still of Jedi Grand Master Yoda from `` Star Wars : Episode II -- Attack of the Clones '' teaching young Jedis how to use a light saber . `` I 'm signing because the nearest temple ( is ) billions of light years away , '' one supporter wrote on the petition page . Another supporter wrote : `` We want freedom of worship . There are mosques everywhere , but no Jedi temple ! '' The petition was started by Akin Cagatay Caliskan , an 18-year-old computer science student from Ankara . Caliskan says he is surprised by the impact his petition has made : `` I did not expect so many supporters . I thought maybe it might ( have ) 100 . '' The satirical document does have a serious side . An online debate started last month when Mehmet Karaca , the rector of Istanbul Technical University , said he would build a mosque on campus if there was enough support . Karaca was referencing another petition asking a mosque be built on campus , which almost 200,000 students signed . Twenty thousand students at ITU also signed a separate petition in response , demanding a Buddhist temple on campus . `` I can not fulfill my religious needs '' and can not afford `` to go to the nearest Buddhist temple 2,000 miles away , '' Utku Gurcag Boratac from Istanbul wrote as her reason for signing . `` I want to fulfill my religious needs on campus , '' said another . This is just the latest flurry in a longstanding discussion around civil and religious freedoms in the secular republic . Turkey 's secularist opposition has accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party , the Islamist-based Justice and Development Party , of trying to instill conservative Islamic values into everyday life . Late last year , the head of Turkey 's Islamic religious affairs authority , the Diyanet , announced plans to build 80 mosques on university campuses across the country . The Diyanet sparked discussion a few months earlier by opening a mosque on the campus of Erzurum Ataturk University in the eastern province of Erzurum , according to Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet .
5,500 signatures call for Jedi temple after similar petition calls for campus approval . Petition filed by a student at campus ##mir University in the western province of buffalo .