MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkey and Azerbaijan started joint military drills in Azerbaijan on Monday, deploying tanks, helicopters and drones, Russia's RIA news agency reported, citing Azerbaijan's defence ministry.

       Ankara last year backed Azerbaijan's effort to drive ethnic Armenian forces out of swathes of territory they had controlled since the 1990s in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

       The two countries earlier this month agreed to increase cooperation in the military sphere.

       (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Osborn)