In December 1991, Karkarashvili joined the Tengiz Kitovani-led rebellious faction of military in a violent coup against President Zviad Gamsakhurdia and headed a storm of the government’s building which ended in Gamsakhurdia’s flight from Tbilisi in January 1992.
Later in 1992 he was actively campaigning against the nationalist government of Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
In exchange for Russian support against forces loyal to the ousted Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, he agreed to join the Commonwealth of Independent States and legitimize the Russian military bases in Georgia: Vaziani Military Base, Gudauta, Akhalkalaki and Batumi.
In September 1993, Zviad Gamsakhurdia took advantage of the struggle in Abkhazia to return to the city of Zugdidi, western Georgia, and rally enthusiastic but disorganized Georgians in Samegrelo region against the demoralized and unpopular government of Eduard Shevardnadze.
The referendum was sanctioned by the Georgian Supreme Council which was elected in the first multi-party elections held in Soviet Georgia in October 1990, and was dominated by a pro-independence bloc Round Table-Free Georgia led by the Soviet-era dissident Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
During the 1992-1993 civil war between the adherents of the first Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his opponents, Igor Giorgadze sided with Eduard Shevardnadze and in 1993, was appointed the country's Minister of State Security.
Konstantine Gamsakhurdia's son, Zviad, became a notable Soviet-era dissident who was subsequently elected the first President of Georgia in 1991, but died under suspicious circumstances in the civil war in 1993.
Earlier in his career, Gudava was a close associate of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a fellow Georgian dissident and the future first democratically elected President of Georgia.
President Zviad Gamsakhurdia was ousted in a bloody coup that destroyed the center of Tbilisi between 20 December 1991 and 6 January 1992.