Flag: Kazakhstan

A sky-blue field, a golden sun, a steppe eagle and Kazakh ornament.

Kazakhstan adopted this flag on 4 June 1992, months after it became independent from the Soviet Union. The artist Shaken Niyazbekov designed it. The blue stands for the open sky and for the unity of the country's many peoples; the sun with its 32 rays stands for life, energy and wealth; the golden eagle beneath it, the berkut that Kazakh hunters have trained for centuries, stands for freedom and strength. Along the left edge runs a vertical band of gold ornament called koshkar-muiz, 'ram's horns', a pattern you will find on Kazakh carpets, felt and jewellery.

At emoji size the eagle shrinks to a smudge and the ornament to a thin gold line, so the colour is what you recognise: a flat, light turquoise-blue that no other national flag quite matches. If you know little about the country, this is the place to start: Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country, home to around 20 million people, with Kazakh and Russian both widely spoken, Astana as its capital, Almaty as its biggest city, and the Baikonur cosmodrome from which the first human flew into space.

What does it mean when someone sends 🇰🇿?

They mean Kazakhstan, almost always with a touch of pride.

In a profile or after a name it says 'I am Kazakh' or 'I live in Kazakhstan'. In a chat it marks a trip, a match, a holiday or a piece of news from there. The flag has no hidden slang meaning; read the words around it and you have the whole message.

Two large groups send it far outside the country. Sports fans use it for Kazakhstan's boxers, weightlifters and wrestlers and for the Astana cycling team, and the flag floods comment sections whenever the singer Dimash Kudaibergen performs, his fan base in China and beyond being enormous. Kazakhs at home and abroad post it on Independence Day, 16 December, and at Nauryz, the spring new year celebrated on 21 and 22 March.