tankian was born in beirut, lebanon on august 21, 1967. his parents were armenian citizens, and all four of his grandparents escaped from turkey during the armenian genocide. at age seven, he moved with his parents to los angeles, california. in his youth, he attended the bilingual rose and alex pilibos armenian school, which was also attended by his future system of a down bandmates daron malakian and shavo odadjian. tankian was accepted into california state university, northridge, where he first began to play instruments and write songs.