Bariş and Ilknur Atabay’s grief for their baby daughter, who they buried last month, was amplified Friday when they learned her gravestone had been removed at a North Park cemetery.They were among the dozens of families who were shocked to find their loved ones’ headstones had been taken from their respective burial plots and scattered by a dumpster this month at Bohemian National Cemetery, 5255 N. Pulaski Road.The Atabays, with their other children — two boys ages 3 and 7 — fled Turkey and came to Chicago in February 2023 seeking asylum. A third child died at birth last month."It's very painful that this happened unannounced, and that there are so many unmarked plots,” Ilknur Atabay, 32, told the Sun-Times through a translator. “Yes, she is dead, but she's a part of me and always will be," she said of her daughter.The Muslim Community Center of Chicago owns the portion of the cemetery where the gravestones were removed. In a statement last week, the organization said the upright gravestones were uprooted because they did not lie flat on the ground — a design intended to be uniform across the cemetery. A section of the Bohemian National Cemetery owned by the Muslim Community Center of Chicago was targeted by vandals this month. Families arrived to find upright gravestones strewn beside a dumpster. The families plan to hold a meeting Sunday in protest.Bohemian National Cemetery “These markers were moved for storage elsewhere so that they can be retrieved at a later time for re-installation with the appropriate concrete base (at an additional cost),” the Muslim Community Center’s statement said. “We regret the distress or hurt this may have caused to the beloved members of our community.”The organization will hold a meeting at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at its community center, 4380 N. Elston Ave., to discuss the removal and answer any questions from families. The site where Bariş and Ilknur Atabay’s baby daughter is buried at Bohemian National Cemetery. Their daughter’s gravestone was removed, along with around 100 others there, without notice this month. The child died last month at birth.Ilknur Atabay/Provided The Atabays don’t plan on attending Sunday’s meeting because they do not speak English. Instead, their friend, Margaret Kuzma, a volunteer at RefugeeOne, will attend on their behalf, Kuzma said Sunday.“They are still devastated by the loss of their daughter and have no energy to go to such a forum to express how this has compounded their grief,” Kuzma said.Ilknur Atabay told Kuzma to emphasize at the meeting that the organization should “respect other people’s pain a little,” Kuzma said.Bariş Atabay, 33, was frustrated by the lack of communication from the Muslim Community Center before the gravestones were removed. He also wasn’t aware that the headstones were supposed to be of a certain design.“We made our tombstone and put it there more than a month ago. Why did they wait so long" to remove it,” Bariş Atabay said through a translator. “Or why didn't they tell us that they were going to do this? They had all our contact information.”The Atabays visited the cemetery Saturday but could not locate their daughter's grave. Bariş and Ilknur Atabay’s baby daughter’s gravestone at Bohemian National Cemetery in North Park before it was removed by the Muslim Community Center, along with around 100 other gravestones, last week.Ilknur Atabay/Provided Kuzma said the Atabays are devastated, especially because the Muslim Community Center was one of the few entities they trusted since arriving in Chicago.“This is a community that is one of the most vulnerable communities when it’s immigrants, and this is an organization that they trusted, so it just makes it all even more painful for them,” Kuzma said.The Muslim Community Center couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday.The organization started managing the grave markers in 2023. For years prior, the cemetery handled them. Many non-compliant grave markers had already been installed without the cemetery’s knowledge, the Muslim Community Center said. Dozens of gravestones were found discarded by dumpsters in Bohemian National Cemetery.Aimen Halim/Provided This led to some of the grave markers having the incorrect type of base, causing them to come loose, according to the center. The cemetery’s grounds crew was tasked with removing the loose headstones.But some families say their loved ones’ gravestones weren’t damaged, even after they found them strewn near the dumpster.Representatives of the Muslim Community Center will work with the families to have the grave markers properly reinstalled, the organization said. It had previously said it’s “committed to supporting families who may face financial difficulties in this process, and will consider supporting the families on a case-by-case basis.”Contributing: Jake Wittich