The southeast Anatolian orogen may be divided into three roughly cast-west trending structural zones formed as a result of continental collision between the Taurus platform and the Arabian continent. Along the orogcnic belt, metamorphic and ophiolitic rocks occur widely. The ophiolitcs represent remnants of the ocean or oceans which were totally consumed between these converging continental blocks during Late Cretaceous to Miocene period. Metamorphic rocks formed from the oceanic as well as the continental rocks which were incorporated into a nappc stack during the consumption of the oceanic lithosphere and the progressive southward advance of the nappcs toward the Arabian continent. The metamorphic units, together with the ophiolitc associations, provide stratigraphic and pctrologic evidence indicating time, place, and environment of formation of these units; the metamorphic units also provide evidence of nappc transportation stages which are complementary to the data derived from the sedimentary successions in the evaluation of the orogcnic evolution of southeast Anatolian orogcn.

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The volcanosedimentary units of Late Mesozoic-Tertiary age that outcrop in the Southeast Anatolian orogenic belt are commonly referred to as the Maden complex. There is a long-lasting controversy over its definition, age, stratigraphic and structural position, and the origin, and thus, the orogenic evolution. To solve this problem, large strips across the Southeast Anatolian orogenic belt have been studied extensively, and different rock groups which were regarded previously as the Maden unit have been differentiated. Their major characteristics and differences have been identified. The Maden unit sensu stricto is here redefined as a volcanosedimentary succession of Middle Eocene age representing a short-lived back-arc basin which reached the stage of an embryonic ocean. Presently, the Maden group occurs mainly within the lower nappe stack of the nappe zone of the Southeast Anatolian orogen. It rests stratigraphically on an amalgamated nappe package consisting of the different metamorphic tectonic units and, in turn, is overlain tectonically by the upper nappe units.