George Bournoutian was born in Isfahan, Iran into an Armenian family.

[5][6] He grew up in Iran, and he received his high school diploma from the Andisheh (Don Bosco) institution in Tehran.

His dissertation was titled "Eastern Armenia on the Eve of the Russian Conquest," which was published as a book in 1982 and republished in 1992.

He was fluent in Armenian, Persian, Russian, and Polish, and had a reading command of French.

[10] He accompanied his senior and graduate students on annual trips to Armenia and Transcaucasia, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, South and Central America and Antarctica.