I disagree, it depends on your preferred system of taxonomy but cladistically we are indeed apes. Biologists sometimes speak about non-human apes to avoid confusion.
Here are Jerry Coyne's comments on the subject...
Apes are Old World anthropoid mammals, more specifically a clade of tailless catarrhine primates, belonging to the biological superfamily Hominoidea.
Last time I looked, I was also a tailless catarrhine primate, so that makes me an ape as well. The only thing I’d take issue with is Richard’s statement that he’s an African ape. He’s an ape who is descended from African apes, but he’s currently an Oxford ape. (Richard was an African ape when he was growing up in Kenya.)
As for Kohlmayer’s argument that we’re not apes (or animals!) because we can do all sorts of things that other beasts can’t, well, those abilities come from the evolution of our big brains, not from the hand of God. Just because some apes have capacities more advanced than others doesn’t mean they’re not apes. Crows are a lot smarter than ducks, but nobody denies that a crow is a bird.
