Azerbaijan on Thursday launched joint military exercises with Turkish troops aimed at increasing "combat effectiveness"of the two countries' military, the Caucasus nation said. The drills came after Ankara last year backed Baku in a war with Armenia over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey's arms supplies -- such as Bayraktar combat drones -- helped Azerbaijan's army win a decisive victory in a six-week war against Armenia. On Thursday, Azerbaijan hosted joint drills with Turkish troops, the defence ministry in Baku said without specifying the number of troops involved. Conducted at various training grounds in Azerbaijan, the two-day manoeuvres are aimed at increasing the "combat effectiveness of operational units of the Azerbaijani and Turkish armies," the defense ministry said in a statement. Ankara was accused of dispatching mercenaries from Syria to bolster Baku's army, but denied the charge. Six weeks of fighting that broke out last September have claimed the lives of some 6,000 people and ended in November with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Armenia cede to Baku swathes of territory it had controlled since 1990s. During a military parade in Baku last December, Turkey paraded its drones, with Turkish television saying they had "turned the tide" of the Karabakh war. eg-im/as/har