'We've been very patient for almost three years. We tried, through our direct contacts with Armenia, through international interlocutors, to deliver a message that this is unacceptable. We cannot afford to have illegal separatist regime even in a small part of Azerbaijan,' President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in a joint press statement with President of Iraq Abdullatif Jamal Rashid in Baku, APA reports. 'As I said, the large part of the occupied territories was liberated in 2020. Unfortunately, the Armenian government did not listen to us. It listened to its advisors in the West, and those advisors did not give them a good advice. Unfortunately, their advice was to keep the military contingent in our territory as long as they can. Our patience came to an end this September, and we conducted an anti-terror operation fully in line with international law in our sovereign territory, which lasted less than 24 hours and with zero casualties among civilians. I think what we see in the Middle East now should be considered as an example of how a military operation must be conducted with zero casualties among civilians. As a result of that, the illegal regime in Nagorno-Karabakh collapsed. Though it was illegal, but anyways, they themselves dissolved this illegal, so-called entity, which they used to call 'nagorno-karabakh republic'. We restored our sovereignty, and now, the Azerbaijani flag is everywhere in our territory,' - the President added. Source: Azeri-Press News Agency