With his ascend to the throne, George found himself involved in the civil war among the princes of western Georgia.

Levan fled to Istanbul and, with an Ottoman support, resumed the throne, forcing Gurieli to plea for peace.

The western Georgian princes became engulfed into the havoc of feudal warfare, mounting and disbanding alliances, and raiding the rival fiefdoms.

In addition to the civil strife, the Ottomans also increased their pressure upon the Kingdom of Imereti.

Although George II was able to block the advance of the Turkish commander Lala Mustafa Pasha from eastern Georgia in 1578, he had to submit to the sultan's order and, in 1581, at the head of a combined Imeretian-Mingrelian-Gurian army, raided the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartli whose ruler, Simon I, waged a relentless guerrilla warfare against the Ottoman army.