Cicek criticizes pace's definition of terrorist as activists

Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek on Monday met with President Jean-Claude Mignon of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Ankara. During the meeting, Cicek reiterated Ankara's criticism on PACE's referral to the militants of the outlawed PKK as "activists" as opposed to "terrorists," saying, "We expressed discomfort and disappointment due to referring to the members of an organization as activists that were accepted as terrorists by the EU and the UN, in an organization we participate as an active member." Cicek added that Turkey has been fighting against terrorism for half a century and that Turkey lost more than 40,000 of its citizens due to terrorism. For his part, Mignon offered PACE's condolences referring to the deadly bomb attacks in Reyhanli town of Turkey's southern Hatay province in the weekend.