PART OF THE MONOGRAPH “GOJKO JAKOVLEVSKI” BY SLAVE KATIN
The grand opening of the restaurant was attended by a large number of prominent citizens of West Berlin, including the mayor, businessmen and cultural workers. At the same time, many Macedonians came, friends of the young, ambitious and very hardworking Gojko, who turned the restaurant into a gathering place for Macedonians and Germans who lived and worked in Berlin, as well as guests from different parts of the world who came to visit West Berlin, the Berlin Wall and the Reichstag, which were a special attraction.
As a result of his acquaintances with emigration, Gojko Jakovlevski became a member of the Presidency of the Yugoslav Democratic Union “Buducnost” at the Assembly held on December 1, 1962 in Munich. At the conference, committees of Croats, Serbs and Bosnian Muslims were elected, and a Macedonian national group was formed, led by Gojko Jakovleski, for which he received an identity card.
Even in his early years, Gojko Jakovlevski showed political activity, cultural and church activity and contacted the numerous Macedonian emigration in Europe. According to Gojko, in August 1971, at his request, he changed his name and surname from Gojko Jakovlevski to Goce Makedonski. His activities were the reason why he waited many years to obtain German citizenship.
However, his persistence and deep conviction in honesty and loyalty to the German state, in which he always saw the embodiment of building a democratic society and a reliable fair mediator, would bear fruit with a result, with the acquisition of German citizenship. At that time in Germany, Goce Makedonski became a respected businessman and a respected citizen, but at the same time he treated his native homeland, Macedonia, with greater love.
Already in early 1972, at the initiative of Dimko Nechevski, as president and Dragan Bogdanovski as a member of the revolutionary wing of the Liberation Committee of Macedonia (OKM), Goce Makedonski began his activity in Macedonian patriotic organizations.
The main goal of the Organization was the unification of a fragmented and enslaved Macedonia into an independent Macedonian state, so it accepted into its ranks anyone who wanted to work for the unification of Macedonia, regardless of their personal ideological and philosophical understandings, regardless of whether they were democrats, communists or anti-communists, as well as regardless of their ideological and political understandings and party affiliation.
Otherwise, the authority of Goce Makedonski among the emigration in West Germany and more broadly in Europe was unassailable and undivided. He was a powerful man in the shadows or, in other words, the uncrowned leader of the Macedonian emigration in Europe. He achieved this with his constantly quiet and unobtrusive activity and mutual contacts, which made him independent of the personalities who were factionally divided in the organization. Goce Makedonski was the pivot of the organization. His advice for the organization was welcome and was always implemented.
In March 1993, with the formation of the Initiative Board for the Creation of the Macedonian Orthodox Church “St. Clement of Ohrid” in West Berlin – Germany, the Holy Synod of Bishops unanimously confirmed and formalized the proposed composition, in which Gojko Jakovlevski (Goce Makedonski) was the president.
Then on January 27, 2002, at the Annual Assembly, at the proposal of the competent diocesan bishop, His Eminence Mr. Gorazd, Gojko Jakovlevski was accepted by acclamation as the lifelong president of the church municipality “St. Clement of Ohrid” in Berlin.
Gojko Jakovlevski was also a member of the Football Club “Macedonia”, from Berlin since January 1, 1974, whereby Gojko continued his sports activity that he had as a student at the club “Hajduk”, from Zubovce. In Berlin, his financial situation allowed him to allocate financial resources and help two Macedonian football clubs “Makedonija” and “Ilinden”, as well as other Macedonian associations, organizations and individuals.
On July 7, 1976, however, headed by Goce Makedonski, the Organizing Committee of the “United Macedonians” in West Berlin sent an invitation to the Macedonians who were living in West Germany at that time. In the invitation, the Committee called on compatriots on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the Macedonian national holiday “Ilinden”, organized by the KUD “Vardar” and the football clubs: “Ilinden 1903” and “Makedonija” from West Berlin, to attend the solemn celebration that took place on August 1 of the same year.
Goce Makedonski is one of the founders of the political party VMRO DPMNE. Namely, in April 1990, Bogdanovski came to Berlin, where with Goce Makedonski, his brother Manoil Jakovlevski-Mane and Stevo Donevski-Majkata, they held the first consultative meeting in the “Novo Skopje” restaurant for the formation of the DPMNE party (Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity) in the Republic of Macedonia.
The same year, on June 17, at the “25 May” Youth Center in Skopje, at the ceremonial assembly, when the party was named VMRO-DPMNE (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity), the respected and deserving person for Macedonia and one of the founders of DPMNE – Gojko Jakovlevski, alias Gojko Delchev Rafkin – Goce Makedonski addressed the ceremonial part of the assembly.
To be continue
By SLAVE KATIN
