PART OF THE MONOGRAPH “GOJKO JAKOVLEVSKI” BY SLAVE KATIN
Little is known about the personality and actions of Dragan Bogdanovski in our public, even though he was one of the most prominent Macedonian po litical emigrants after 1945. He is a man of remarkably rich biography, an unwavering f ighter for the achievement of the Macedo nian Ilinden (Gocev) ideals, ie ideas for liber ation and unification of all parts of Macedo nia. Bogdanovski has been at the forefront of patriotic Macedonian emigration for 30 years.
In the biography of Dragan Bogdanovski, among other things, one can read that he was born in 1929 in the village of Klecovce, Kumanovo, and that he comes from a well known patriotic village-farming family (Dragan’s grandfather is Ilinden-komita in Atanas’s squad). .
He finished primary school in his native village, and secondary education in Kumanovo and Bitola, after which 1948. Enrolled in Belgrade (Zemun) at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry. In Belgrade, in the third semester of his studies, he appeared as the initiator for the establishment of a “Macedonian Student Club”, for which he was imprisoned and served a 4-month sentence in the infamous prison of Obilikev Venac. Upon his release from prison, he was excluded from the faculty without the right to enroll in any faculty in Yugoslavia.
That draconian measure of faculty au thority fundamentally changes Bogdano vski’s life. He decided to leave the country and in the spring of 1950, along with sev eral fellow students, crossed the border to Gevgelija. After a compulsory stay in a refu gee camp in the late 1950s. He left for South America, where he stayed in Argentina and Brazil until 1954.
Desire for science does not leave him, for which he returns to Paris and enrolls at the Sorbonne School of Political Science and Journalism. He immediately started political activity, formed the organ ization “Macedonian National Front” and started publishing the newspaper “Macedo nian Spark”. This newspaper has managed to get out of the numbers and, following the intervention of the Yugoslav and Greek em bassies, has been banned.
Goyko and Dragan
In 1958 he marries Brita, the daughter of the then chief architect of Oslo, and leaves for Norway. She has two sons (Per-Arne and Ivan). He has a Cyrillic alphabet printing house and through his written word con tributes to the struggle for the unification of Macedonia. About Dragana 1958 It is very important, because it is then the initiator of publishing more newspapers, magazines and books about Macedonia and the Mace donian work. In Oslo he publishes the mag. azine “Macedonian Line” and “Free Macedo nia”, then prints the newspaper “Macedonia” magazine “Macedonian nation” and so on.
His activity was mostly expressed as an initiator for the establishment of numer ous political organizations of Macedonians abroad. The aforementioned newspapers have a great response to the Macedonian emigration. It actually begins to awaken Macedonians and Macedonians in the world.
In 1963 the establishment of the first Mac edonian national organization OKM (Mac edonian Liberation Committee), which was established in 1972. is being transformed into DOOM (Movement for Liberation and Unification of Macedonia). Dragan has been in charge of this organization since 1967.
DOOM develops a broad activity target ing Macedonians who after 60 years left their homeland for economic or political reasons, and soon confronts the then FBI that monitors and occasionally impedes its activities. The theft of his printing house in Munich (from Oslo to Brussels to Munich) is staged, in which the magazine “Macedonian Nation” is printed.
For the sake of truth, the SDB does not take any action to completely eliminate Dragan Bogdanovski’s activity, since he de fended his struggle to prevent the activities of various foreign propagandists, political or church institutions that the Macedoni ans employed or then popularly called “Tem porary Work Abroad”. “, Floods them with pro-Greek, pro-Bulgarian and other propa ganda activities, such as” Pan-Macedonians “,” MPO “by Vanco Mihajlov,” Slavic Com mittee “of the NBR and other institutions of the neighboring countries of Macedonia her. Dragan Bogdanovski was a great fighter against all those who denied the existence of the Macedonian nation and the Mace donian ethnic identity. During that period (1958-1977) the biggest battle was against Vancho Mihailov’s “MPO”.
In fact, Dragan Bogdanovski will be qual ified for the first time as an opponent of Yugoslavia, after meeting Vlado Dapcevic, one of the creators of the “New CPY”, formed with the support of the then USSR, who thus wanted to translate Yugoslavia into the then Socialist contract.
In a clearing action with the “dangerous immigrant circles”, a decision was made to bring Dragan Bogdanovski to Yugosla via and prosecute him. In 1977 he was head of DOOM. Dragan is abducted in Paris and brought to Yugoslavia. He was abducted by members of the then SDB in the apartment of another member of DOOM, and transport ed to Ljubljana and later to Skopje by a dip lomatic vehicle. He was blindfolded and tak en to a police station near Makedonski Brod where he was investigated for 18 months
. To be continue
By SLAVE KATIN
