ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey has begun a new phase in sweeping restorations of the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, focusing on preserving the monument's historic domes from the threat of earthquakes.
Officials say the project will include reinforcing Hagia Sophia’s main dome and half domes, replacing the worn lead coverings and upgrading the steel framework while worship continues uninterrupted in the mosque.
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People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A depiction of the Seraphim angel is seen in the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia Mosque at Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A depiction of the Seraphim angel is seen in the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia Mosque at Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People wait in line to visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque next to scaffolds installed for restoration works, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People look at Byzantine mosaics in Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Scaffolds are installed in Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque for restoration work, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Scaffolds are installed in Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque for restoration work, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A newly installed tower crane on the eastern façade is expected to facilitate the efforts by transporting materials, expediting the renovations.
“We have been carrying out intensive restoration efforts on Hagia Sophia and its surrounding structures for three years,” said Dr. Mehmet Selim Okten, a construction engineer, lecturer at Mimar Sinan University and a member of the scientific council overseeing the renovations. “At the end of these three years, we have focused on the seismic safety of Hagia Sophia, the minarets, the main dome and the main arches, especially due to the expected Istanbul earthquake.”
In 2023, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey, destroying or damaging hundreds of thousands of buildings and leaving more than 53,000 people dead. While Istanbul was not impacted, the devastation in southern Turkey heightened fears of a similar quake with experts citing the city's proximity to fault lines.
Okten said a “new phase” of work is about to begin, one that he describes as the most significant intervention in over 150 years and in the totality of the structure's long history.
“A tower crane will be installed on the eastern facade, and then we will cover the top of this unique structure with a protective frame system,” he said. “That way, we can work more safely and examine the building’s layers academically, including damage it suffered from fires and earthquakes in the 10th and 14th centuries.”
Built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 537, Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque with the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding leader of the Turkish republic, converted it into a museum in 1934.
Although an annex to Hagia Sophia, the sultan’s pavilion, has been open to prayers since the 1990s, religious and nationalist groups in Turkey had long yearned for the nearly 1,500-year-old edifice they regard as the legacy of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror to be reverted into a mosque.
Turkey’s highest administrative court overturned the 1934 decree in 2020, allowing it to reopen as a mosque.
“We have completed our work on the four minarets and the main structure,” Okten said. “But for this unique cultural heritage (of the domes), we plan to use modern, lightweight materials and keep the building open to the public."
Visitors to the site expressed approval of the plan.
“Hagia Sophia is amazing, it’s one of the world’s most important monuments,” said Cambridge University lecturer Rupert Wegerif. “It seems really important that they are going to strengthen it in case of earthquakes and preserve it.”
Okten said that while it wasn't clear when the renovations will be finished, the process would be open to the public to be “monitored transparently.”
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A depiction of the Seraphim angel is seen in the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia Mosque at Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A depiction of the Seraphim angel is seen in the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia Mosque at Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People wait in line to visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque next to scaffolds installed for restoration works, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People look at Byzantine mosaics in Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Scaffolds are installed in Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque for restoration work, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Scaffolds are installed in Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque for restoration work, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
People visit Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Maribel Hernandez and her husband, Leonardo Campos, were shopping at a Walmart in a Texas border city in 2019 when a gunman who wanted to stop what he believed was a Hispanic invasion opened fire, killing them and 21 others.
On Monday, Hernandez's daughter, Yvonne Loya Gonzalez, spoke directly to the gunman, Patrick Crusius, after he pleaded guilty to capital murder in the El Paso massacre: “Their absence in my life has left a deep void in my heart."
The statements by victims' relatives and survivors that began Monday afternoon could continue through Wednesday. Some, including Gonzalez, told Crusius he is forgiven.
“I have no more room for hate in my heart,” Gonzalez said.
Crusius, a white 26-year-old community college dropout, showed little emotion, kept his head up and eyes trained ahead on those who spoke. Many expressed hope he would reflect on his actions in prison.
Crusius, who wore a striped jumpsuit, shackles and a protective vest during the hearing, did not address the families when he accepted the plea deal, which he made after local prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table. He had already been sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms on federal hate crime charges.
Liliana Munoz of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, said she had been shopping for snacks to resell across the border when Crusius opened fire, forever changing her life physically, economically and emotionally.
In her statement, which was read by someone sitting beside her in court, she said she used to be a “happy, dancing person,” but now she is afraid every morning when she awakes. She now uses a cane to walk and a wears leg brace to keep her left foot from dragging.
“It left me sad, bitter,” she said.
But she also granted him forgiveness “because what would be the point of forgiving what was easy to forgive?”
Crusius drove more than 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) from his home near Dallas to carry out the shooting on Aug. 3, 2019.
"You came to inflict terror, to take innocent lives and to shatter a community that had done nothing but stand for kindness, unity and love. You slaughtered fathers, mothers, sons and daughters,” State District Judge Sam Medrano said.
“Now as you begin the rest of your life locked away, remember this: your mission failed,” he continued. “You did not divide this city, you strengthened it. You did not silence its voice, you made it louder. You did not instill fear, you inspired unity. El Paso rose, stronger and braver.”
Medrano sentenced Crusius to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
While one of his lawyers, Joe Spencer, told the court, "We offer our deepest condolences,” Crusius did not explicitly apologize Monday for his actions.
Crusius also pleaded guilty Monday to 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which were enhanced with violence and prejudice findings, in relation to the 22 people who were injured but survived the shooting. He was sentenced to 22 additional life sentences on those counts.
“Patrick will leave prison only in a coffin on God’s time,” Spencer said.
In a posting to an online message board just before the massacre, Crusius said the shooting was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He said Hispanics would take over the government and economy.
Crusius appears to have been consumed by the immigration debate, posting online in support of building a border wall and praising the hard-line border policies of President Donald Trump, who was in his first term at the time. After the shooting, Crusius told officers he had targeted Mexicans.
“He latched onto hateful rhetoric, particularly the dangerous and false narratives surrounding immigration being repeated in political discourse,” Spencer said.
The attorney said Crusius was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which can be marked by hallucinations, delusions and mood swings. “His thinking became increasingly divorced from reality,” he said.
“We share this not as an excuse, but as part of the explanation for the inexplicable,” he said.
The people who were killed at Walmart ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to elderly grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, a teacher, tradesmen including a former iron worker, and several Mexican nationals who had crossed the U.S. border on routine shopping trips.
Adriana Zandri’s husband, Ivan Manzano, was killed after crossing into the U.S. from Mexico on a shopping run. She lamented that her husband lost the chance to teach his son to drive and shave or to give away his daughter’s hand in marriage.
“When all this happened, my son was 5 and my daughter was 9,” she said in her statement to the court. “The only thing that I wanted was for them to not grow up with hatred in their hearts.”
Stengle contributed from Dallas.
Family members leave the court after a hearing for Patrick Crusius at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in El Paso, Texas, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)
A person reacts during a hearing for Patrick Crusius at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)
El Paso District Attorney James Montoya walks outside the 409th District Court after Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in the death of 23 people in the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)
El Paso District Attorney James Montoya talks to media outside the 409th District Court after Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in the death of 23 people in the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)
Families embrace as they leave the 409th District Court after Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in the death of 23 people in the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)
Families embrace as they leave the 409th District Court after Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in the death of 23 people in the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)
A heavy security presence is seen outside the El Paso County Court House on the day Patrick Crusius is set to plea guilty to the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting that left 23 dead, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)
El Paso District Attorney James Montoya talks to media outside the 409th District Court after Patrick Crusius pleaded guilty in the death of 23 people in the Aug. 3. 2019 Walmart Mass shooting, Monday, April 21, 2025, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)
Judge Sam Medrano speaks during a hearing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)
Patrick Crusius is sentence to life in prison at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)
Patrick Crusius stands up to listen to the charges from Judge Sam Medrano in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue during his sentencing in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)
Family members await the start of the sentencing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, on April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)
Patrick Crusius stands up to listen to the charges from Judge Sam Medrano in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue during his sentencing in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)
Patrick Crusius enters the Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue for his sentencing in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)
Patrick Crusius attends a sentencing hearing with Judge Sam Medrano in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue during in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)
A person reacts during a hearing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)
A person reacts during a hearing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)
Patrick Crusius stands up to listen to the charges from Judge Sam Medrano in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue for his sentencing in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)
Patrick Crusius attends a sentencing hearing with Judge Sam Medrano in the 409th district Commissioners Courtroom at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue during in El Paso, Texas, April 21, 2025. (Ruben R. Ramirez/Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - Eddie Medina, 62, carries groceries he bought for his wife at the reopening of the Cielo Vista Walmart, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2019 photo, mourners visit the makeshift memorial near the Walmart in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
FILE - A woman is reflected in a picture as she looks at a makeshift memorial at the scene of a mass shooting at a shopping complex Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, May 21, 2020 photo, Vanessa Romero holds her son at a memorial service for the 23rd victim of the Aug. 3 Walmart shooting while wearing an "El Paso Strong" T-shirt and a face mask in El Paso, Texas. AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2019, photo Texas state police cars block the access to the Walmart store in the aftermath of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)
