This paper reviews the late paleozoic and Mesozoic tectonics of the Middle Eastern Tethysides in terms of a new tectonic model, whose main tenet is to regard the late paleozoic to late triassic basement of the pontide/ Dzirula/ Adzharia- Trialeti/ Artvin- Karabagh/ Sanandaj- Sirjan zones Collectively as a NNE- facing cimmeride magmatic arc, called the Podataksasi zone whose Jurassic- cretaceous movement with respect to Eurasia Caused much of the coeval deformation in Transcaucasia, southern USSR E of the Caspian Sea, and in Iran. The model suggests that the northern margin of Gondwana- land in the Middle East was not a passive, Atlantic- type Continental margin during the late paleozoic and the early and middle Triassic, but instead was an active, Pacific- type margin, formed by the Gondwania- ward subduction of the floor of Paleo- Tethys. Successive calving of island arcs of this margin formed the Neo- Tethyan Oceans.
Very large magnitude strike slip faults were responsible for disrupting the post- collisional geometry of the Middle Eastern cimmerides, this disruption was largely responsible for the obliteration of the podataksasi zone.