ASIO surveillance photo of Georgi Trajkovski from 1979. Pictured here leaving his
consular vehicle, a Mercedes Benz. source: National Archives of Australia
by Sasha Uzunov
ASIO - The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has released three more dossiers, bringing the total to five so far, for Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne Georgi Trajkovski, believed to be the mastermind behind a covert operation to discredit emigre Croats and Macedonians during the 1970s.
ASIO, the domestic counter-intelligence service, kept a close watch on Trajkovski, who was Consul General from 1975-79.
According to this 1978 ASIO report, local Macedonians were not regarded as terrorists or posed a security threat. The report suggests that the violence within the community was caused by the Communist Yugoslav government's battle to take control of Australian Macedonian Orthodox Churches.
This same report reveals the struggle between the Yugoslav government and an apocryphally named Macedonian nationalist organisation DOOM (MLUM - Movement for the Liberation and Unification of Macedonia).
In 1976 the situation was worsened when Bishop Kiril (Cyril) was sent by Communist Yugoslavia to induce the local churches to hand over their assets to the Skopje patriarchy. (Photo: National Archives of Australia, 1973)
ASIO surveillance photo of Georgi Trajkovski from 1979. Pictured is his consular vehicle, a Mercedes Benz. Trajkovski is partly obscured at a fancy Melbourne restaurant at the time, Troika.
source: National Archives of Australia
Photo of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (1975-83), in the centre of photo, visiting the Yugoslav Consulate in Hawthorn, Melbourne in 1979 and holding a book. On his left is Trajkovski (numbered 4) and far left is Petar "Pero" Lombardic (numbered 8), Trajkovski's second deputy and hatchet man. Missing from the photo is Anastas "Aco" Stojanovski, first deputy. source: National Archives of Australia
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