Around 2,000 people joined a rally staged in the Crimean capital Simferopol by the Ukrainian branch of the Hizb ut-Tahrir. The rally commemorated the 89th anniversary of the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924.The demonstrators were holding black and white flags carrying slogans "There is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah", "89 years without the Caliphate is a great tragedy", "Islam is our guidance for life", "Only the Caliphate protects our religion", and "We are Muslims, our ideology is Islam, our constitution is Quran".
Up to 400 women in Islamic dress attended the rally. They stood separately from the men.
Hizb ut-Tahrir Ukraine office spokesman Fazyl Amzayev said, "The rally is dedicated to the 89th anniversary of the dissolution of the Caliphate. It is part of the campaign being held by our organization across the world. We gathered Muslims in Ukraine in order to speak about the Caliphate's place in Islam and how it was destroyed. We want to convey the idea that rebuilding the Caliphate is our duty and responsibility before Allah.
"We are governed by the laws of Islam in our work. These laws of Islam carry peace and harmony. They will not carry any destruction of the public system as long as we obey these laws. We continue our movement."
The rally continued for an hour and a half and speeches were delivered in Russian and Arabic.
The demonstrators called the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in Turkey on March 3, 1924 a tragedy, blaming Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.