Flag: Turkmenistan

It is Turkmenistan, in Central Asia. The flag is a deep green field with a white crescent and five white stars near the top, and a red-burgundy vertical stripe along the pole side filled with ornate patterns. That stripe is the giveaway: no other national flag carries carpet designs.

The patterns are guls, the medallion motifs of Turkmen carpets, and there are five of them, each tied to one of the major Turkmen tribes (Teke, Yomut, Salyr, Chowdur and Ersary). The five stars are often said to stand for the country's five provinces, and the crescent is a common Islamic symbol across the region. At the bottom of the stripe sit two crossed olive branches, added in 1997 after the United Nations recognised Turkmenistan's declared permanent neutrality in 1995. The flag itself was adopted in 1992, soon after independence from the Soviet Union.

Turkmenistan is a mostly desert country of about seven million people whose capital, Ashgabat, is known for its white-marble buildings. Carpets are a national art there, with a Carpet Day each May, and the country is famous for the Akhal-Teke horse breed and the burning Darvaza gas crater in the Karakum desert. Few tourists go there, so when the flag turns up in your chat it often comes from someone with a personal link to the place.

What does it mean when someone sends 🇹🇲?

They are pointing at Turkmenistan: a place, a person or a team. Next to a name or in a profile it says "I am Turkmen" or "my family is from there". After travel talk it means that is the destination. During a football, wrestling or weightlifting event it is support for the Turkmen side.

It has no established hidden meaning. If you see it under a photo of a flag you did not recognise, it is simply the answer.