The structural styles of the Neogene basins in Southern Turkey formed in two stages. (1) Early to Middle Miocene transtension in a NNW-SSE direction disrupting the Paleozoic--Mesozoic substratum in the Adana Basin and the allochthonous ophiolite basement in the Iskenderun Basin. (2) Late Messinian-Pliocene transpression in a NW-SE direction which yielded structures on two levels. Inversions of former extensional faults sole in the substratum. The compression also shows advancing thrusts which utilize the Messinian evaporites as a decollement surface. Synchronously with regional shortening gravitational tectonics sloping towards the deeper parts of the Iskenderun Basin accompany the overall deformation. The study area and the Amik Basin to the southeast is a strain transfer system between two major sinistral transform faults; the Ecemis fault to the northwest of the Adana Basin and the Dead Sea fault to the southeast of the Iskenderun Basin, where it loses its transcurrent character into the graben zone of the Amik Basin.