Although the émigrés experienced a permanent shortage of money, Zhordania's government maintained relations with the still popular Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party and other anti-Soviet organizations in Georgia, and thus constituted a nuisance to the Soviet authorities.

Several memoranda urging assistance for the cause of Georgian independence were sent to the British, French, and Italian governments as well as to the League of Nations, which adopted two resolutions, in 1922 and 1924, endorsing Georgia's sovereignty.

On 27 March 1921, the exiled Georgian government issued an appeal from their temporary offices in Istanbul to "all socialist parties and workers' organizations" of the world, protesting against the invasion of Georgia.

Beyond passionate editorials in some Western newspapers and pleas for action from such Georgian sympathizers as Sir Oliver Wardrop, the international response to the events in Georgia was subdued.

With the emigration of Zhordania's government and the establishment of the Georgian SSR, the question of recognition was considered by the foreign states that had recognized de jure the independence of Georgia before the Soviet conquest.